The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported one new COVID-19 case, a cadet who had been aboard the navy supply ship Panshih (磐石) adding that the cadet tested positive in a second test, but had antibodies.
Between Saturday last week and Tuesday, the center reported 27 confirmed cases who were crew members of the Panshih, one of the three vessels making up a “Friendship Flotilla” that visited Palau.
After the first case was confirmed on Saturday, all 744 officers, sailors and cadets on board the three vessels were recalled for testing and ordered into quarantine for 14 days.
Photo: Chang Yi-chen, Taipei Times
From March 23, the cadet, in his 20s, started coughing, developed a fever and experienced a loss of smell, but his condition improved after taking medicine, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center.
The cadet tested negative after arriving at a quarantine facility on Saturday, but after having a stuffy nose and losing his sense of smell on Sunday, he was given another test, which came back positive yesterday, Chen said.
Five crew members who sought treatment for fever from the Panshih’s medical officer between March 21 and March 26 had antibody blood tests at the quarantine center, CECC advisory specialist panel convener Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) reported on Monday, adding that three of them had antibodies, but tested negative.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The new case was one of the people who had antibodies, but he tested positive in the second examination, Chang said.
After the body of an infected person begins to produce antibodies, the virus usually weakens, but might not immediately disappear, so there might be a period in which both the antibodies and the virus can be detected, he said.
People with the antibody and the virus are likely to test negative sometimes and positive other times — but the virus is typically more difficult to culture at this stage, so the risk of such people transmitting the virus to others is lessened, Chang said.
Asked about some countries wanting to conduct wide-scale antibody testing so that people with immunity could return to work, Chang said that the concept has a scientific base, as people with antibodies are believed to be safe from contracting the virus again.
However, whether people who have the antibody and the virus at the same time can infect others needs further study, Chang said.
So far, 28 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed among crew members of the Panshih and 692 people have been identified as having had direct contact with them, Chen said, adding that 446 of those identified have been placed in home quarantine and 246 of them were practicing self-health management.
Department of Medical Affairs Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said that 229 Taiwanese from China’s Hubei Province and 14 crew landed in Taiwan on a “quasi-charter flight” from Shanghai at about 9:15pm on Tuesday.
One passenger had a mild fever and respiratory symptoms. They were isolated and tested, but the results came back negative, he said, adding that the other passengers were settled in quarantine facilities and received their first test.
All 231 Taiwanese who arrived on a quasi-charter flight from China’s Hubei Province on Monday evening tested negative in the first test, he added.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to make advanced 3-nanometer chips in Japan, stepping up its semiconductor manufacturing roadmap in the country in a triumph for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s technology ambitions. TSMC is to adopt cutting-edge technology for its second wafer fab in Kumamoto, company chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. That is an upgrade from an original blueprint to produce 7-nanometer chips by late next year, people familiar with the matter said. TSMC began mass production at its first plant in Japan’s Kumamoto in late 2024. Its second fab, which is still under construction, was originally focused on
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
RSS