Taiwan will close its borders to visitors from SARS-stricken China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Canada for two weeks, the government said today, as the island reported its first known victim of the virus.
Taiwan residents returning from these areas, which the World Health Organisation has designated as being infected by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, would be quarantined for 10 days to curb the spread of the disease, the government said.
The most drastic attempt yet to ward off a virus that has killed about 290 people worldwide, the move restricts travel between Taiwan and its largest trading partner, China. Hong Kong has already urged Taiwan to reconsider.
"Fighting the epidemic is like fighting a war. We face an invisible enemy," Premier Yu Shyi-kun told a news conference, calling for public support for the measures.
But analysts said the curbs could jeopardise Taiwan's economy, as most of its core high-tech industry - contract suppliers for leading global firms -- has moved its factories to China to take advantage of low costs.
Curbing travel could delay the launch and certification of higher-yielding new products, analysts said.
The Hong Kong government said in a statement the ban had adverse implications and called on Taiwan to reconsider.
"Taiwan should consider lifting such measures in the interest of facilitating commercial, tourism and other exchanges between Hong Kong and Taiwan," a spokesman said.
The measures, which would take a day or two to implement, follow a SARS outbreak at the Taipei Municipal Ho Ping Hospital last week, which caused the number of probable SARS cases to spike to 55 from 33, and suspect cases to surge to 72 from 50.