Taiwan to lift China Sars ban

Taiwan plans to lift Sars quarantine restrictions this week for travellers from China, ending a two-month-old order that has discouraged thousands of Taiwanese businesspeople from returning home.

The decision is good news for airlines and transit points such as Hong Kong and Macau, as before the Sars outbreak, the heavy flow of Taiwanese travellers to and from China made the route one of the most lucrative in Asia.

If China has no new Sars outbreaks, Taiwan's quarantine requirements will be dropped on Friday - 10 days after the World Health Organisation decided that the mainland was no longer a Sars-infected area. Taiwan's last Sars case was hospitalised on June 15.