Mon, May 19, 2003
Now, Taiwan Cases Of SARS On The Rise
Taiwan saw another record rise in its number of
new SARS cases on Sunday as the pneumonia-like virus spread to an
offshore island and two more hospitals had to be closed. The
President of China, where SARS first appeared late last year, vowed
to work with the world to halt the spread of the virus as Chinese
authorities reported the lowest number of SARS deaths in a day for
over a month.
Singapore was on course to be declared free of SARS by the World
Health organization (WHO) after 20 days with no new cases. Hong
Kong reported only three new cases but another four deaths from the
disease. Taiwan, with the world’s third-highest number of
SARS deaths and infections after China and Hong Kong, said the
outlying Penghu Islands had reported their first cases, stark
evidence the virus was still spreading.
Crippling Regional Airlines
The SARS epidemic, which is centered in East Asia,
has devastated airlines throughout the region. There are new flight
restrictions - some airlines just can't get there because local or
national governments have banned flights. There are new medical
procedures for arriving and departing passengers, designed to look
for the SARS virus. But more than anything, passengers are staying
away in droves. In fact, the government on Okinawa wants the
national government in Japan to ban flights from Taipei. Hotels in
Japan have started slamming doors in the faces of people traveling
from places like Taipei and Hong Kong. Carriers like China Airlines
are struggling to keep the passengers they have, much less attract
new ones.
"We will make our utmost effort to prevent passengers from
contracting the virus while flying," said one China Airlines
executive. National economies, dependent to varied extents on
tourism cash, are also hurting. "In the past more than 70,000
tourists visited Japan per month," said Roget Hsu,
secretary-general of the Travel Agent Association. "But the figure
declined to about 7,000 last month and, with the case, may fall
further in the coming months."
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