Taiwan CDC expands travel alert to all of South Korea

Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control has expanded its travel alert for the Greater Seoul area to all of South Korea. The continued spread of Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome, or MERS, in Korea has led to extra precautions at Taiwan’s hospitals. The mood was unusually tense this morning at Renai Hospital in Taipei when a Korean tourist showed up at the emergency room with a fever. He was immediately quarantined.Chen Shiou-shengTaipei City HospitalIn the wake of the MERS outbreak, we promptly started our SOPs. We gave masks to patients, conducted preliminary sterilization and sent the patient to the fever screening station. Our initial tests suggest that the (Korean) patient is not infected with MERS.While this patient tested negative, anxiety levels were still high.Flights from Korea tend to be filled with either Korean tourists acting normally or Taiwanese wearing masks.“I don’t feel like (the Koreans) are very nervous. I think that Taiwan’s experience with SARS has raised our anxiety levels.”The MERS outbreak has caused many people to pull out of planned trips to Korea. Some travel agencies are encouraging clients to switch to different tours.Decreased demand for Korea has led China Air and Eva Air to cut flights to Seoul. Some flight routes to Korea have been suspended entirely. Uni Air will postpone its new flight to Seoul until October.