The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday announced two new imported cases of COVID-19, both Taiwanese who returned from the US, bringing the nation’s total to 395.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that case No. 394 is a woman in her 60s who on Jan. 22 traveled to the US to visit family and on March 30 returned on the same flight from New York as 11 previously reported cases.
The woman was originally placed in home quarantine after she returned, but was later put in home isolation as other passengers on the flight tested positive for COVID-19, Chen said, adding that she experienced body aches, stomach aches, vomiting, chest tightness and a fever from April 4.
Photo: CNA
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said that the woman was tested on Wednesday and Friday last week, and confirmed with a positive result yesterday.
So far, 12 passengers on China Airlines (華航) Flight CI011 from New York to Taipei on March 30 have been infected.
Case No. 395 is a woman in her 20s who studies in the US; from April 4 she experienced coughing, a stuffy and runny nose, and lost her sense of smell; and on Monday reported her symptoms to airport quarantine officers upon arriving in Taiwan and received testing, Chen said.
Addressing controversy due to recent imported cases, who had already contracted the disease abroad and only reported their symptoms to quarantine officers after arriving in Taiwan, Chen said that many people, himself included, experience respiratory symptoms from time to time, but they are mostly caused by the common cold, adding that the cause of symptoms should be diagnosed by healthcare professionals.
He urged people not to discriminate against imported cases and encouraged people arriving in Taiwan to honestly report any symptom to quarantine officers.
Asked if large-scale testing should be conducted on all travelers returning from Europe or the US, Chen said that the CECC hopes to save Taiwan’s medical capacity for dealing with sudden, unpredictable situations so that the disease prevention system would not be overwhelmed.
The infection rate is about 5.76 percent among people who returned from Europe and displaying symptoms, and about 4.5 percent among people who returned from the US with symptoms, Chen added.
The rates would drop to 0.85 percent and 0.41 percent respectively if all people who have returned were tested, but that would lead to very low screening efficiency, he said.
The current policy of screening people at higher risk is based on scientific knowledge and experts’ advice, and has been reviewed and modified several times, so the risk of community spread remains relatively low, he said.
A total of 172 cases were confirmed among about 19,000 people who returned from Europe between March 1 and Monday last week: 76 whose samples were taken at the airport, 90 detected in home quarantine and six discovered after tracking down about 13,000 people who traveled in Europe, Chen said.
A total of 61 cases were confirmed among approximately 14,000 people who returned from the US in the same period: 26 tested at the airport, 29 tested while in home quarantine and six detected after expanded testing criteria to trace people at higher risk, he said.
A total of 395 cases have been reported and 137 infected patients have been released from isolation after treatment, he added.
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