According to the community surveillance data compiled by the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control, pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus has been very active in the community.It is estimated that approximately over ten thousand cases of influenza-like illness have occurred in the past one week.The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) indicated that the focus of the current disease control measures is to prevent the occurrence of complications associated with pandemic influenza A (H1N1).To ensure medical care institutes can continue to provide safe settings for patients to receive medical treatment and the health of medical care personnel, medical care institutes should implement the following guidance:
1. Actively promote the wearing of facemask among patients with influenza-like symptoms when entering hospitals and reinforce hand hygiene adherence among medical care personnel.
2. Monitor personnel for fever or influenza-like symptoms.Request personnel with symptoms to rest at home and administer appropriate treatment to such personnel.
3. Implement the reporting mechanism for cluster outbreaks that notifies the local health authority promptly.
4. When a cluster outbreak of pandemic influenza A (H1N1) occurs at a medical care institute, outbreak control interventions should be immediately implemented and relevant standard operating procedures (SOPs) established by the institute should be closely followed in response to the outbreak.
5. Patients with suspected pandemic influenza A (H1N1) infection should be treated appropriately and promptly.

If the number of pandemic influenza A (H1N1) cases and that of cluster outbreaks continue to increase, resulting an increase in the number of complications associated with pandemic influenza A (H1N1) among medical care personnel, in the near future, CECC will be more imperative when requesting medical care institutes to implement stricter measures such as wearing facemasks when going to the hospital, restricting the number of visitors and operating hours, closing the cafes and stores in the hospital, prohibiting organization of unnecessary gathering events at the hospital, and organizing mostly web-based educational training.

On the other hand, CECC will consider asking local health bureaus to inspect the implementation of nosocomial infection control at medical care institutes and order medical care institutes to correct implementation errors within a period of time when necessary.If a hospital fails to comply with such correction order, the wards at the hospital might be requested to shut down in order to prevent further transmission of the disease.