Taiwan tightens travel controls
2003-04-27 12:40
Taipei - Taiwan announced on Sunday a temporary ban on visitors from the Sars-affected areas of Singapore, Vietnam and Toronto - adding to restrictions on visitors from Hong Kong and China, as island reported its first death from the disease.
Premier Yu Shyi-kun said the government would in two weeks cease issuing visas to residents from areas worst affected by severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), including Singapore, Vietnam and Canada's Toronto.
The government imposed a similar ban at the weekend on visitors from Hong Kong and China, the areas hardest hit by the disease which has claimed around 316 lives worldwide.
A 56-year-old man late on Saturday became Taiwan's first person to die from Sars. The man, identified only by his surname Tseng, died at a hospital in the central city of Taichung.
The number of probable cases of the disease has risen to 55, with a large outbreak at Taipei's Hoping Municipal Hospital.
The premier also advised Taiwan nationals against travel to countries and areas on a World Health Organisation list of places affected by Sars.
Under other measures announced to contain Sars, Taiwan nationals with Chinese spouses and children staying on the mainland and travelling to Taiwan will be forced into a 10-day mandatory quarantine after arriving here.
An people who violate a 10-day quarantine imposed on those who might have been exposed to Sars could be fined up to T$300 000 (US$8 570) and jailed for up to two years.
Taiwan's first Sars death is believed to have contracted the disease from his brother who was a reportedly a resident of Hong Kong's Amoy Garden public housing estate, where hundreds of people were infected with the deadly virus.
But the victim's family has not shown any Sars symptoms following a two-week quarantine.
The Hong Kong resident flew last month to Taipei, and from there took a train to visit his brother in central Taiwan.
Taiwan's mainland policy decision-making body said the temporary ban on people from Sars-affected areas was intended to reduce new SARS infections on the island.
"Hopefully the cases of overseas contraction would be reduced, and therefore, more local medical resources would be concentrated on Taipei's Hoping Municipal Hospital," Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) vice-chair Liu Teh-hsun told AFP.
Taiwan's health authorities on Thursday ordered the hospital, which has the island's first mass outbreak, to close and isolated its 200 patients. The hospital's 900 staff were also ordered to remain in the facility for two weeks.
Some medical workers have protested the quarantine and on Sunday several family members of those quarantined held a noisy demonstration outside the hospital claiming that their relatives were healthy and should not be confined to the hospital with possible Sars patients.
A suspected Sars patient quarantined at the hospital committed suicide over the weekend after he discovered that his family of four had come down with the disease.
The premier called for calm. "There is no need to panic," Yu told reporters.
While pledging full government support to fight "the invisible enemy," he said the public's cooperation would be essential for combating Sars.
Health officials joined the chorus urging the public not to panic.
"Contracting Sars does not necessarily lead to death," said Chiou Shu-ti, the health commissioner of Taipei city's health bureau.