The Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday announced three new COVID-19 cases — two imported and one domestic — bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Taiwan to 379.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the domestic case, No. 379, is a woman in her 30s who sought treatment at a hospital for a fever and a runny nose on Saturday last week, and tested positive yesterday.
While the woman leads a relatively simple life and mainly remains at home, her husband in January traveled to Guangzhou, China, for work and she visited Southeast Asia in early February, Chen said, adding that 21 people who had direct contact with her have been identified and a further contact investigation is under way.
Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said that the woman claimed that she usually stays at home and only walks to nearby shopping centers every day.
However, due to some difficulties in conducting the contact investigation, the local health department would need to access surveillance footage and other data sources to trace her activities and the possible source of infection, he said.
Case No. 377 is a woman in her 20s who studied in Spain and was placed in home quarantine after returning to Taiwan on March 22, Chen said.
She experienced a sore throat and diarrhea the next day, but took medicine on her own to relieve the symptoms, he said.
However, when the local government checked on her health on Saturday last week, she reported a persistent runny nose, nasal congestion, mild diarrhea, and chest and back pain, Chen said.
Her test result came back positive yesterday, he added.
Case No. 378 is a woman in her 60s who visited relatives in Indonesia between Feb. 16 and Sunday last week, when she was put in home quarantine, Chen said.
She began coughing on Wednesday last week and sought treatment for difficulty breathing, a fever, fatigue and pneumonia on Saturday last week, he said.
Ministry of Health and Welfare Department of Information Management Director Parng I-ming (龐一鳴) said that the center — with the help of HTC Corp’s (宏達電) DeepQ AI Platform and the Line messaging app — on Friday last week launched a chatbot on Line to provide information and care services to people in home quarantine, through which 9,843 people had reported their health conditions as of Tuesday.
While the number of imported cases has fallen over the past few days, the center is keeping an eye on whether there were any cluster infections that occurred during the four-day Tomb Sweeping Day weekend, Chen said, adding that the answer might be revealed as soon as Sunday.
Asked about a remark yesterday by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) that people should be allowed to buy 28 masks per month, Chen said that the maximum amount of adult masks people can buy is this week being increased to nine per 14 days, and that the government has stockpiled more than 267 million adult masks and more than 40 million children’s masks.
“Having one or even two masks per day would be nice, but I must reiterate that masks are disease prevention resources that should be used economically,” Chen said.
Taking a handwritten letter taped to a bag of masks of different sizes from his pocket, Chen said that he received the letter from a 10-year-old boy, who expressed his gratitude to the center for protecting everyone and wanted to give Chen the masks to protect him in the fight against COVID-19.
“It is moving to see a child so young who already knows to ration masks to help others,” he said.
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION: The UK would continue to reinforce ties with Taiwan ‘in a wide range of areas’ as a part of a ‘strong unofficial relationship,’ a paper said The UK plans to conduct more freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. British Member of Parliament Desmond Swayne said that the Royal Navy’s HMS Spey had passed through the Taiwan Strait “in pursuit of vital international freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.” Swayne asked Lammy whether he agreed that it was “proper and lawful” to do so, and if the UK would continue to carry out similar operations. Lammy replied “yes” to both questions. The
SECOND SPEECH: All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist the CCP, despite their differences, the president said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday discussed how pro-Taiwan and pro-Republic of China (ROC) groups can agree to maintain solidarity on the issue of protecting Taiwan and resisting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The talk, delivered last night at Taoyuan’s Hakka Youth Association, was the second in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. Citing Taiwanese democracy pioneer Chiang Wei-shui’s (蔣渭水) slogan that solidarity brings strength, Lai said it was a call for political parties to find consensus amid disagreements on behalf of bettering the nation. All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist
By refusing to agree spending increases to appease US President Donald Trump, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez threatened to derail a summit that NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte needs to run smoothly for the sake of the military alliance’s future survival. Ahead of yesterday’s gathering in The Hague, Netherlands, things were going off the rails. European officials have expressed irritation at the spoiler role that Sanchez is playing when their No. 1 task is to line up behind a pledge to raise defense spending to 5 percent of GDP. Rutte needed to keep Spain in line while preventing others such as Slovakia
SHIFT PRIORITIES: The US should first help Taiwan respond to actions China is already taking, instead of focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, an expert said US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China. US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals. Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and