Thu, Apr 09, 2020 page1

• Virus Outbreak: Three new COVID-19 cases confirmed

  TAKING IT SLOW: Chen Shih-chung said while it would be nice to use a mask or two each day, they are disease prevention resources that must be rationed out carefully

  • By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
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  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.

  

  A pack of masks and accompanying note sent to Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung by a 10-year-old boy are pictured in Taipei yesterday.

  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.
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