The government is considering tightening mask-wearing rules again in light of a potential domestic COVID-19 infection, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday.
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) confirmed seven new COVID-19 cases, six of which are imported.
The other case involves a Belgian engineer who entered Taiwan on May 3 and remained in quarantine until May 17, said Chen, who heads the CECC.
Photo courtesy of the Central Epidemic Command Center via CNA
Although the source of infection has yet to be identified, the case could end the nation’s record of not having any domestic cases in the previous 110 days.
The Belgian, in his 20s, is a technician working on an offshore wind project in Changhua County.
He underwent COVID-19 testing to be able to return to his native country, Chen said.
Photo: Liu Pin-chuan, Taipei Times
The man tested positive in two polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, with cycle threshold values of 34 and 33, which Chen described as a “weak positive,” but still in the positive range for a disease considered to have an incubation period of two to 14 days.
The man was also tested for antibodies, Chen said, adding that his IgM — the first antibody the body makes when it fights a new infection — was negative, while IgG was “strongly positive.”
According to a US Federal Drug Administration fact sheet dated June 12, IgG antibodies generally start appearing about seven to 10 days after infection and often indicate a past infection.
Chen said the case has not yet been classified as an imported or domestic case, because if the man’s IgM is negative and IgG is positive, he might have been infected a long time ago.
The Belgian has been put in an isolation ward in a hospital and 89 people who had come into close contact with him are being monitored, Chen said, adding that 82 of them are under home quarantine, while the other seven are required to monitor their own health.
The Belgian had followed the rules and wore a mask on public transport, but had often gone outdoors, where he sometimes took his mask off, Chen said.
Since his movements are clear, the CECC does not plan to make them public, he said.
Five of the imported cases, men aged between 20 and 80, are from the Philippines, while the other is from Guatemala, Chen said.
They entered the nation from July 15 to Thursday and started to exhibit symptoms from July 10 to Friday, he said.
The new cases raised the nation’s total number of confirmed cases to 474 — 382 imported and 55 domestic cases, as well as 36 cases from the navy’s “Friendship Flotilla” and one case that needs further investigation.
With the pandemic raging overseas, Chen reminded Taiwanese to keep their guard up and always wear a mask when they are indoors — for example in theaters, karaoke bars, elevators and study centers.
He also urged people to wash their hands frequently and practice social distancing.
The government would maintain strict border controls, he said, adding that the nation is still safe from the risk of community outbreaks.
“If 80 percent of people often wear masks, the nation would be very safe. If only 70 percent of people did, there could be a problem, but right now the rate is under 30 percent,” he said, reiterating the importance of wearing masks indoors.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS