Taiwan yesterday confirmed one additional COVID-19 case, bringing the national total to 45, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.
The 45th patient is a woman in her 50s who had been hospitalized in the same ward as Taiwan’s 34th novel coronavirus patient, the CECC said.
She had not traveled abroad in the past few months. She was admitted to the hospital on Feb. 14 due to an unrelated ailment and spent time in the same ward as the other patient, although in a different room, before being discharged on Feb. 20, it said.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The woman was found to have contracted the disease after health authorities on Sunday screened the people with whom the 34th patient might have come into contact with, it said.
She was confirmed as being infected following a second positive test on Thursday and was put in a negative-pressure isolation room, the CECC said.
Meanwhile, the CECC said that an Australian composer who tested positive for COVID-19 posed a low risk of community spread during his time in Taiwan from Feb. 23 to Monday.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo / EPA-EFE
The composer — who the CECC did not name — performed at the National Concert Hall in Taipei on Friday and Sunday last week.
Australian authorities on Thursday confirmed him as a new coronavirus case after he disembarked from EVA Air (長榮航空) Flight BR315, which departed from Taipei on Monday and landed in Brisbane on Tuesday.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is also a CECC official, said that 147 people were identified as having come into contact with the composer in Taiwan, including 103 who have been ordered into home quarantine.
The 103 included 19 orchestra members, eight reporters, 17 hotel staff, 15 drivers, three personal acquaintances of the composer’s, and 12 crew and six passengers on the flight, he said.
Twenty-three people who attended the performances were on the home-quarantine list, too, as they sat within 2m of the composer, according to video footage, he said.
Other audience members are advised to closely monitor their health and seek medical attention if any symptoms occur, he said.
Not being able to reach the composer, the CECC could not confirm whether he had worn a mask on the flight, but he had spent most of his time in Taiwan not wearing one, Chuang said.
The composer’s schedule here was business-related for the most part, including rehearsals from Tuesday to Thursday last week, followed by the two performance days, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC.
Apart from consulting a doctor on Thursday last week, the composer mostly traveled between the hotel and the performance venue, Chen said.
Those who drove him have been ordered into home quarantine after being identified via video footage, Chen said, adding that the composer did not use public transportation.
The composer departed the UK and transited in Bangkok before arriving in Taiwan, where officials collected his details after he reported having a cough, but entry was approved as he exhibited no symptoms.
With many people who attended the performances being teachers, they are advised not to return to work immediately, but to monitor their health at home, Chen said.
In other developments, the CECC yesterday said that 19 Taiwanese evacuees from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan would be discharged from quarantine today.
The move comes after none of them were confirmed as having contracted COVID-19 after a third round of testing, it said.
The previous two rounds of testing, which also came back negative, were conducted immediately after their return aboard a charter flight from Tokyo on Feb. 21.
They were put in isolation in separate rooms at a quarantine center.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
COUNTERING HOSTILITY: The draft bill would require the US to increase diplomatic pressure on China and would impose sanctions on those who sabotage undersea cable networks US lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bipartisan bill to bolster the resilience of Taiwan’s submarine cables to counter China’s hostile activities. The proposal, titled the critical undersea infrastructure resilience initiative act, was cosponsored by Republican representatives Mike Lawler and Greg Stanton, and Democratic Representative Dave Min. US Senators John Curtis and Jacky Rosen also introduced a companion bill in the US Senate, which has passed markup at the chamber’s Committee on Foreign Relations. The House’s version of the bill would prioritize the deployment of sensors to detect disruptions or potential sabotage in real-time and enhance early warning capabilities through global intelligence sharing frameworks,
RSS