DOH chief Yeh Chin-chuan made the announcement at a press conference held at the Central Epidemics Control Center in the company of Shih Wen-yi, deputy director-general of the Center for Disease Control (CDC).

Yeh said the confirmed cases involve a 32-year-old mother and her baby daughter of one year and nine months.

The two returned to the Taoyuan International Airport aboard NW005 flight from Portland of the U.S. West Coast and transit NW021 flight via Japan on May 5.

Neither showed any symptoms when getting aboard of the flights or landing in Taoyuan.

Yeh said the two, who live in the area of Jianguo South Road in Taipei, are presently under quarantine and treatment at the Heping Campus of the Taipei Municipal Hospital after being detected with flu symptoms.

statement A: He reemphasized that there is no need to panic because the government agencies have fully prepared to cope with the possible importation of A(HIN1) cases.

statement B: The public health system will be able to contain the possible spread of the virus, he stressed.

statement C: other source - we cannot contain this virus. WHO.

But he the two have recently visited the National Taiwan University Hospital and the Renai branch of the city hospital for treatment of fevers and coughing.

The family members of the two as well as medical workers and outpatients at the two hospitals should contact the CDC via the “1922” telephone hotline for closer medical examination because of their close contact with the mother and the baby in recent days.

Yeh said the cases prompted the government to upgrade the flu alert to Level Two from Level One.

He urged the public to join the anti-flu campaign and take initiative to monitor their health conditions by frequently washing hands, wearing masks, and calling “1922” for medical assistance whenever in need.

Meanwhile, sixteen out of 17 arrivals in Taiwan who traveled on a flight from the U.S. Friday with three Japanese people who tested positive for swine flu were found yesterday to be free from infection, local quarantine officials said.

The CDC said it had tried to track all 17 passengers, including one foreign national, who arrived in Taiwan Friday from Tokyo's Narita International Airport after the Japanese quarantine authorities confirmed that the three Japanese who visited Canada from April 24-May 7 had contracted the flu virus.

All 16 Taiwanese passengers had been located, examined and found to be free of infection, while the foreign national had departed for Hong Kong Saturday before the CDC experts could screen him, CDC officials said.

All 16 were asked to impose “self health management” for the next 10 days and to take one dose of Tamiflu per day for 10 consecutive days.

The three Japanese passengers suffered coughing, runny noses and fever during the flight from the United States to Japan, which carried 390 passengers. They were the first three cases of swine flu reported by Japan.

Of the 16 Taiwanese passengers who shared the flight from Detroit to Tokyo, where they stopped en route to Taiwan, one was a 19-year-old girl who was quarantined immediately after disembarking at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport because of flu symptoms, including fever.

The young woman tested negative for swine flu but was nevertheless placed Saturday by the CDC in quarantine at Taoyuan General Hospital for further observation, taking its cue from the fact that a Hong Kong case that tested negative after a quick preliminary examination was later confirmed as a swine flu case.

She was discharged from the hospital yesterday afternoon.

Local quarantine authorities began in late April to make on-board checks of passengers on flights arriving from North America, and no local confirmed cases have yet been reported