The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday announced 15 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Taiwan to 298.
Fourteen of the new cases — nine men and five women — are imported cases who had returned to Taiwan between March 14 and Friday, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center.
Among them are three clusters of cases, including a married couple who visited Indonesia form March 10 to March 14, developed symptoms on Sunday last week and sought medical help on Thursday, he said.
Photo: Tsai Wen-chu, Taipei Times
The second clustered case is a man who visited Morocco from March 10 to Sunday last week in a tour group, in which another traveler tested positive last week, Chen said.
The third clustered case is also a married couple. The husband visited Spain and Portugal in a tour group from March 7 to March 16, but his wife had not traveled abroad recently.
They both tested positive for COVID-19, Chen said.
The wife, who is yesterday’s sole domestic case, could have been infected by her husband, the CECC said.
One of the imported cases, the nation’s 284th, is a man who worked in the Philippines and returned to Taiwan on March 20 on the same commercial flight — EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) Flight BR282 — with another confirmed case, the nation’s 277th, which was confirmed on Saturday, Chen said.
People who were on the flight should immediately contact local health departments if they develop COVID-19 symptoms, the CECC said.
Although the two cases had greeted each other at the airport in the Philippines before boarding the flight, the center considers the likelihood of them contracting the coronavirus in the Philippines to be higher, Chen said.
Seven of the new cases had been under home quarantine, four were detected at the airport upon arrival and four sought medical treatment on their own, he said.
Following the confirmation of two domestic cases with unclear sources of infection on Saturday, the center has identified 449 people who have had come into contact with case No. 268, Chen said, adding that most of them would need to perform self-health management and would not be tested.
The person visited New Taipei City’s Jinshan Old Street (金山老街) and Miao Kou thick pork soup (廟口肉羹) between 5:20pm and 6:54pm on Feb. 29, and visited Wulai Old Street (烏來老街) and the food stalls there from 2:30pm to 4:48pm on March 15, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said.
However, the center could not identify other people who visited the venues while the person was there, he said.
The other domestic case announced on Saturday, the nation’s 269th, was found to have come into contact with an imported case (No. 277) on March 20, Chen said.
Meanwhile, the nation’s 156th case, reported on Sunday last week, a nurse working at a long-term care facility, was yesterday discharged from hospital, making it the shortest period of hospitalization for a COVID-19 patient in Taiwan, he said.
Chen also said that students at a senior-high school in northern Taiwan can return to school today after 74 people who had come into contact with a cluster of cases at the school tested negative for COVID-19.
The nation’s 59th case, a student at the school, had tested positive after returning from a trip to Greece, causing classes to be suspended for two weeks.
Asked if the CECC suggests any enhanced disease prevention measures, Chen said people should keep practicing social distancing, such as when waiting in lines, adding that the center is discussing whether to draft stricter regulations.
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
RSS