Although no one has been confirmed to have the swine flu virus in Taiwan, the museum, which sees thousands of visitors from various countries each day, is not taking any chances.

On Thursday, it began taking all visitors' temperatures with three infrared body temperature sensory machines, two of which were placed at its ticket sales counter and the other at the entrance of its historical documents building.

No museum visitor has been detected with a fever so far.

To effectively fend off the spread of the influenza A(H1N1) virus that recently erupted in Mexico and has been found in 10 other countries, the museum swiftly activated a campaign similar to the one it launched six years ago with the same machines purchased then to combat SARS, National Palace Museum Director Chou Kung-shin said on Thursday.

Once visitors are detected with a fever, they will be prevented from entering the museum and sent to its medical office to be examined.

To help museum workers avoid contracting any infectious diseases, the museum has also prepared 10,000 masks for staff who are required to wear a mask - including those who deal with visitors found with a high temperature.

The museum receives about 6,000 visitors per day, significantly up from the previous daily averages of about 4,000, due to Taiwan's opening to increasing numbers of Chinese tourists in recent months.