Wed, Apr 08, 2020 page1

• Virus Outbreak: CECC reveals virus treatment capacity

  SMALL INCREASE: Three new imported cases of COVID-19 were reported, one of whom returned to Taiwan on the same flight as 10 other previously reported cases

  • By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
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  The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday disclosed the nation’s capacity for treating COVID-19 patients, adding that it has 34 facilities capable of analyzing 3,800 tests per day.

  The global outbreak of COVID-19 is still severe, and clustered infections in local communities or healthcare facilities have been reported in many countries, said Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元), who heads the CECC’s medical response division.

  The center has six main strategies to ensure that Taiwan’s healthcare system has sufficient medical capacity, he said.

  

  A teacher at Wensheng Elementary School in New Taipei City wears headgear representing a coronavirus as he teaches pupils how to practice social distancing yesterday.

  Photo: CNA

  While about 1,500 tests are being performed every day, the nation’s “expanded COVID-19 testing capacity” has reached about 3,800 tests per day, which can be analyzed at 34 testing facilities — 16 in northern Taiwan, 10 in southern Taiwan, seven in central Taiwan and one in eastern Taiwan, he said.

  The “enhanced community-based surveillance” strategy includes increasing tests on high-risk groups and establishing a network of testing stations in communities, he said.

  High-risk groups include healthcare workers, airline crew members, passengers who returned on a flight from New York in which 10 confirmed cases were detected and people who visited overcrowded tourist spots during the four-day Tomb Sweeping holiday, Hsueh said.

  

  Thank you cards made by five kindergarten students in Taichung’s Dali District are pictured on Monday, expressing their appreciation to medical workers at Jen-Ai Hospital for their hard work in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

  Photo: Chen Chien-chih, Taipei Times

  There are 163 hospitals capable of performing tests on suspected cases, 143 responsive and isolation hospitals designated for admitting patients with mild symptoms, and 52 regional hospitals and medical centers that can take in patients with severe symptoms, he said.

  There are four phases in the “expanding capacity for hospitalizing COVID-19 patients” strategy for designated responsive hospitals, Hsueh said.

  They include admitting patients to negative-pressure isolation wards or single rooms, setting up exclusive COVID-19 departments, suspending the admittance of non-COVID-19 patients and resettling non-COVID-19 patients to other hospitals, he said.

  As part of the “making an inventory of hospital beds and respirators” strategy, he said that there are 2,713 hospitals beds, including in negative-pressure isolation wards and COVID-19-designated wards, that can be used for treating infected patients, with 1,597 beds, or 59 percent, still vacant.

  That capacity could expand to 20,985 beds if a widespread local outbreak occurs, Hsueh said.

  About 1,300 of the 9,932 respirators in the nation are available, and the center expects to increase capacity to about 2,200, he added.

  Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, said the center also hopes to continue its strategy of “expanding the capacity of centralized quarantine” from 1,553 rooms at 13 quarantine centers to more than 3,000 rooms.

  Hsueh said the center has created principles for “implementing a triage system to admit or refer COVID-19 patients” to different levels of hospitals according to each patient’s condition.

  Meanwhile, the CECC reported three new cases in Taiwan, all imported.

  Chen said that the three confirmed cases are two women and one man, all in their 20s, who returned from France, the UK and the US between Monday and Saturday last week.

  Case No. 374, a man who studies in the UK, and case No. 375, a woman who visited her family in France, as well as visiting Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK during her trip, were under home quarantine when they experienced symptoms and reported for testing, he said.

  Case No. 376 is a woman who studies in the US. She returned to Taiwan on the same flight — China Airlines (華航) Flight CI011 from New York to Taipei on Monday last week — as several other previously reported cases, so she was under home isolation when she began experiencing symptoms on Thursday last week, Chen said.

  As 10 passengers on the flight have tested positive for COVID-19 so far, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said that the center has decided to test all of its 323 passengers and 13 crew members.
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