Island put under WHO health rules

Taiwan has been guaranteed direct access to the World Health Organization's (WHO) global health alerts, a mainland official said yesterday.

The mainland had consulted the WHO secretariat to make relevant arrangements to apply the International Health Regulations (IHR) to Taiwan, State Council Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Fan Liqing told a press conference.

The regulation supports a global health alert mechanism to stem the spread of disease and provide a public health response plan, the WHO said.