The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported a domestic case of COVID-19 linked to a cluster infection at a Taoyuan hospital. The center also published some of the public spaces that three previously confirmed cases in the cluster visited from Tuesday last week to Monday.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said the new case — No. 870 — is a woman in her 60s who is the grandmother of case No. 839, a nurse at the hospital whose infection was confirmed on Tuesday last week.
The nurse is believed by the CECC to have been infected by her boyfriend — case No. 838, a physician at the hospital who tested positive after treating a COVID-19 patient who had returned from the US.
Photo: CNA
The grandmother was put under home isolation on Monday last week after the nurse tested positive, and she tested negative on Wednesday last week, Chen said, adding that she developed a fever on Monday and tested positive yesterday.
The CECC on Tuesday also reported that a Vietnamese caregiver (case No. 869) was infected at the hospital.
Chen yesterday said that the caregiver was taking care of her hospitalized employer and case No. 838 came into their room to treat her employer on Jan. 7.
The caregiver did not leave her residence after she and her employer returned home on Tuesday last week, he said.
She developed muscle soreness, general fatigue and a cough on Saturday last week, Chen said, adding that she went to a hospital for testing on Monday and the results came back positive on Tuesday.
Five close contacts of the caregiver have been placed under home isolation, he added.
Chen also announced several public spaces that an infected family — a nurse (case No. 863), her husband (case No.864) and daughter (case No. 865) — had visited before the onset of symptoms.
The husband was at Guangde Seafood Restaurant (廣德海鮮餐廳) from noon to 5pm on Tuesday last week, and the couple visited Nanmen Market (桃園南門市場) in Taoyuan from 11:30am to 12:15pm on Wednesday last week, and from 11:40am to 12:35pm on Saturday last week, he said.
On Saturday, the husband visited Taipei Intestine Oyster Noodles (台北大腸蚵仔麵線) from 9am to 9:20am, and traditional pastry shop Fu Lung Confectionaries (福隆?) from 7pm to 7:20pm.
He also visited breakfast shop Yipin Jintang Soy Milk King (一品金湯豆漿王) from 7am to 10am on Sunday.
The daughter worked at fast-food chain MOS Burger’s Taoyuan MRT Station A7 Store (桃捷A7店) from 9:30am to 9pm from Saturday to Monday, and she was at fast-food chain McDonald’s Taoyuan Sanmin store (桃園三民店) between 9:10pm and 9:30pm on Saturday.
The locations are all in Taoyuan District, with the exception of the Mos Burger store, which is in the city’s Gueishan District (龜山).
Meanwhile, an accounting firm in Taipei 101 on Tuesday released a statement saying that one of its employees had a short encounter with case No. 864 on Sunday afternoon and went to work the same day, local Chinese-language media reported yesterday.
The company said it has asked the employee and 10 colleagues to practice self-health management at home.
The floor on which the employee works was disinfected on Tuesday, and comprehensive disinfection was to be conducted on Tuesday and yesterday, the report cited the company as saying.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, said that the employee is a relative of case No. 864, and they met on Saturday and Sunday, but the employee tested negative and has been placed under home isolation.
He said the employee is not a confirmed case, so people should be more cautious, but do not have to be overly concerned.
The CECC also reported an imported case of COVID-19 — a Taiwanese woman in her 20s who returned from Spain.
Chen said the woman traveled to Spain in December 2019, returned to Taiwan on Jan. 8 and was quarantined at home after arrival.
She developed a cough, sore throat and the loss of smell on Sunday, and a test conducted on Tuesday came back positive yesterday, he said.
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
BIG YEAR: The company said it would also release its A12 chip the same year to keep a ‘reliable stream of new silicon technologies’ flowing to its customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its newest A13 chip is to enter volume production in 2029 as the chipmaker seeks to hold onto its tech leadership and demand for next-generation chips used in artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance-computing (HPC) and mobile applications. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, also unveiled its A12 chip at its annual technology symposium in Santa Clara, California. The A12 chip, which features TSMC’s super-power-rail technology to provide backside power delivery for AI and HPC applications, is also to enter volume production in 2029, a year after the scheduled release of the A14 chip. The technology moves
RSS