Taipei - Taiwan on Saturday was tracing 26 people who flew to the island after being passengers on an earlier flight with a Mexican who was infected with swine flu. "Twenty-six people, including eight Chinese mainlanders, flew on the China Eastern Airlines' Shanghai-Hong Kong flight Thursday and then took seven flights to Taiwan on the same day," Health Minister Yeh Chin-chuan said at a news conference.
"We have contacted 19 of them and appeal to the other seven passengers to contact the Centres for Disease Control," he said.
Among those who have been tracked down, at least six were sent to a hospital for tests to see whether they were infected with the H1N1 flu strain.
Hong Kong identified the 25-year-old Mexican Friday night as its first swine-flu infection. He was taken to a hospital isolation ward and the hotel where he was staying was quarantined.
On Saturday, Taiwan issued a travel alert for Hong Kong and South Korea after they each confirmed one H1N1 infection.
South Korea said Saturday that a 51-year-oldnun tested positive for the H1N1 virus upon her return from Mexico, the country hardest hit by the outbreak.
At Saturday's news conference, Yeh said H1N1 is bound to enter Taiwan but the public need not panic because the government is fully prepared to fight the virus.
"We are not worried about the virus entering Taiwan," he said. "We are worried about it causing community infection and spreading from one person to another."
Mexico's government said late Friday that it has had 16 deaths and 397 cases of the virus. Fourteen other countries have reported infections, but there has been only one other death, reported in the United States.
The swine-flu outbreak is caused by a new flu strain that has genetic elements that come from three species - pigs, birds and humans.
