The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday announced two new confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection in Taiwan, one of whom died on Saturday.
“One of the cases was a 61-year-old man who had chronic hepatitis B and diabetes, but had not visited other countries or had close contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19,” said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), head of the center, told a news conference in Taipei.
The man developed a cough on Jan. 27, sought treatment for difficulty breathing on Feb. 3 and was diagnosed with pneumonia and hospitalized in a negative pressure intensive care unit, Chen said, adding that he died of pneumonia and sepsis.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“With the consent of his family members, specimens were collected for testing before his body was cremated according to regulations on notifiable communicable diseases,” he said.
The CECC said that the man — who became the nation’s 19th confirmed COVID-19 case — was from central Taiwan, adding that it is investigating where he had been and might announce the location of his residence if necessary.
The second new case is a male relative of the 19th case in his 50s, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday and is asymptomatic, Chen said.
Before Feb. 7, mandatory reporting of suspected cases required that people show symptoms and had visited China, so the man was not reported for COVID-19 testing, he said.
The center on Wednesday began to trace all cases of serious flu complications that tested positive for the flu as reported by hospitals since Jan. 31, Chen said.
As of Saturday, specimens from 113 such cases were tested for the new virus and only the 19th confirmed case returned positive results, Chen said
The deceased man can be considered a case of “community-acquired infection,” as he did not visit other countries, but was an independent taxi driver who had many passengers that had traveled to China, Hong Kong or Macau, he said.
The CECC has launched an investigation into his communication records and National Health Insurance (NHI) records as well as surveillance camera footage in a bid to find everyone who might have come into contact with the man and track the possible source of infection as soon as possible, Chen said.
Of 79 people found so far who came into contact with the man, 73 have been tested, which resulted in 60 negative results and one positive result — the 20th confirmed case — while the others are awaiting test results, he said.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said that a community surveillance program was launched yesterday, allowing three types of people to be tested for COVID-19.
They include people who have visited other countries in the past 14 days or have been exposed to people from other countries who experience a fever or respiratory symptoms, as well as those doctors suspect might to be infected with COVID-19.
They also include cluster cases that experience a fever or respiratory symptoms, pneumonia cases involving “an unknown pathogen and unrelieved symptoms after three days of antibiotic treatment,” “clustered cases” or “medical professionals.”
The NHI Administration announced that people who have visited or transited in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Thailand in the past 30 days would be marked in the NHI system, allowing doctors to know their travel history when they seek medical attention.
In related news, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday lodged a protest with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for referring to Taiwan as a province of China in a press release on Thursday.
Reporting the economic effects of the outbreak, the release said gross operating revenues of airlines worldwide are expected to drop by US$4 to US$5 billion.
The estimates do not include potential effects due to a range of airline services, such as “Chinese domestic air traffic, or to international traffic with respect to the Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions of China, or its Taiwan Province,” it said.
The ministry said the ICAO does not hold itself up to professional neutrality standards and should correct the mistake.
Additional reporting by Lu Yi-hsuan
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said it expects its 2-nanometer (2nm) chip capacity to grow at a compound annual rate of 70 percent from this year to 2028. The projection comes as five fabs begin volume production of 2-nanometer chips this year — two in Hsinchu and three in Kaohsiung — TSMC senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Silicon Valley, California, last week. Output in the first year of 2-nanometer production, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, is expected to
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
RSS