 "Taiwan urges young, elderly to avoid travelling to China amid spike in respiratory illnesses")
In the wake of an increasing number of cases of respiratory illnesses in its neighbouring country, Taiwan has urged its youth and the elderly to avoid traveling to China. Last week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) requested China to provide more information on the sudden spike in respiratory illnesses.
Taiwan has been wary of disease outbreaks in its giant neighbour since the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak that started in China and killed nearly 800 people globally in 2002-2003.
China, at the time, had tried to cover up the outbreak.
In a statement released after a weekly Cabinet meeting, Taiwan’s health ministry said that due to the rise in respiratory illnesses in China, “the elderly, young children and other people with poor immunity are requested not to travel to China unless necessary”.
The statement added that if people need to travel to China, they have been advised to get flu and COVID vaccinations.
Meanwhile, China’s Foreign Ministry Wang Yi said on Wednesday that the outbreak is a common issue faced by all countries and that Chinese authorities have it under effective control.
Meanwhile in India, five states have put their health infrastructure on alert mode owing to China’s outbreak. The state governments of Rajasthan, Karnataka, Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Tamil Nadu have asked hospitals and healthcare staff to ensure that they are adequately prepared to tackle patients complaining of respiratory ailments.
“All States and Union Territories have been advised to implement ‘Operational Guidelines for Revised Surveillance Strategy in the context of COVID-19’, shared earlier this year, which provides for integrated surveillance of respiratory pathogens presenting as cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI),” the ministry said in a statement. With inputs from Reuters