Police go door-to-door enforcing SARS quarantine in Taiwan

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Police will begin door-to-door checking for SARS quarantine breakers as the government strained Wednesday to control its worsening outbreak with high-tech equipment and shoe leather.

Taiwan has already issued stay-at-home orders to 10,000 people because of contact with SARS patients. Taipei's mayor announced Wednesday that police would help check on those under quarantine.

The fight against severe acute respiratory syndrome, which has spread rapidly in the past two weeks, has been an uneven one. There have been rowdy protests of government controls and the firing of the head of one hospital accused of covering up misdiagnosed cases of SARS.

But the effort seems to be more focused now with a plan to begin tracking sick people online. And along with house-to-house police checks, 2,000 video cameras will keep watch on previous quarantine violators.

On Tuesday, Taiwan's death toll surged past Canada's 24 deaths, making it the deadliest SARS site outside of mainland China and Hong Kong. By Wednesday, the death count had reached 31; there were 207 other probable cases. Worldwide, at least 588 people of the 7,600 infected with SARS have died.

Toronto deemed safe

The World Health Organization said Wednesday it no longer considers Toronto an area affected by SARS and removed it from the list of the world's hotspots. The decision was made because at least 20 days had passed since the last domestically acquired case of SARS was isolated or had died, the U.N. agency said on its Web site.

With an advanced economy and high-tech industry, as well as a tradition of officials keeping close tabs on who lives where, Taiwan is beginning to display what people here hope will be a real knack for dealing with the unfolding health crisis.

The first of the 2,000 video monitors will watch over people who already have broken quarantine orders by going out -- at times to run the small food or clothing stalls that give them a livelihood.

The vast majority of the quarantined Taiwanese are in fine health. The quarantines apply not only to those returning from SARS-infected places but also to relatives and other close contacts of victims.

Huang Chi-min, an Interior Ministry official, said video surveillance is better psychologically than electronic wrist bands, which might make some people feel like criminals under house arrest.

"With video cameras, we can also check if people begin to have fevers or cough," he said.

The cameras cannot check temperatures, but officials believe experienced health care workers can spot somebody who is frail and feverish just by looking at the screen.

Quarantine violators are fined $1,700.

Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou also said authorities would phone people under quarantine between 8 p.m. and midnight to make sure they are not slipping out.

And there are special neighborhood wardens who keep a lookout.

Anyone in Lee Ping-chi's jurisdiction who returns from SARS-stricken China or Hong Kong has to go into home quarantine for 10 days, and it is up to him to keep track of who has to stay put.

"They walk right into my office to report the quarantine," said the mask-wearing Lee, noting his own vulnerability to the disease. "I can't turn them away. All I can do is to wash my face and hands more often. We are coping with a national crisis."

Meanwhile, Taipei's hospitals continue to struggle with controlling the infection. With two hospitals in the capital already closed because of the virus, a third announced it was quarantining 250 workers Wednesday after some employees and patients showed SARS symptoms.

When one Taipei hospital was sealed off last month to try to contain the disease, workers staged a rowdy protest, shouting at television cameras and unfurling banners.

Tearful hospital workers complained they might be exposed to the SARS virus by being quarantined inside. Residents sought to block trucks sending medical waste from the hospital to an incinerator in a southern city.

But the situation has calmed, and many Taiwanese are resigned to hunkering down and beating SARS.

"Taiwan has plenty of resources and talents, but the situation was chaotic at first," said Chang Po-lun, a computer science professor at Yangming University. "The bureaucracy reacted slowly because officials only acted according to law. Now they are coping better but only after a huge price was paid."

Hoping that high-tech tracking will help, Chang and his students are setting up an Internet system that will link up Taipei's 1,200 clinics as a unified front line.

The network, to be inaugurated by Thursday, will allow clinics to track patients and help move to hospitals those showing high fevers for three consecutive days.

"SARS virus hit so rapidly that some patients become too ill to answer phone calls from health officials, while others become so panicky that they walk into a hospital and get others infected," said Dr. Chang Po-yuang, whose clinic will be included in the network.

The island now is virtually sealed off to outsiders, after WHO issued an advisory against traveling here and local officials ordered strict quarantine measures -- 10 days in isolation -- for people coming in from China and Hong Kong.