The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday announced longer quarantine restrictions for China Airlines (CAL, 華航) flight crew, after another confirmed COVID-19 case brought the total in a cluster linked to the airline to 29.
The push is part of a broader effort by the center to bring cases in the cluster “down to zero,” said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC.
Quarantine requirements for long-haul CAL flight crews are to be lengthened from three to five days, followed by nine days of enhanced health management, Chen told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: Hsieh Wu-hsiung, Taipei Times
Testing would also be expanded to 1,279 CAL pilots, while arriving crews would be required to submit to five COVID-19 tests within 14 days of arrival, he added.
The rules would apply to all long-haul flight crews, Chen said.
Crew on short-haul flights who had not entered their destination countries or changed planes are still only subject to 14 days of self-health management, but would be required to get tested on the seventh and 14th days after arrival, he added.
Chen also called on transportation authorities to supervise the nation’s airlines to ensure that personnel when abroad minimize contact with locals.
Meanwhile, the CECC yesterday reported 13 new cases, including a local case related to the Novotel Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport hotel.
The Taiwanese man in his 30s works as a technician at the hotel and has no recent travel history, it said.
The center suspects that he contracted the virus from two of his colleagues, who tested positive last week and with whom he often had meetings.
He was sent to a government quarantine center after the outbreak was discovered on Thursday last week, at which point he tested negative for the virus and antibodies, Chen said.
Three days later he developed a sore throat, fever and muscle pain, and was moved to a hospital for testing, he said.
Since the man was in a quarantine center, he has no known contacts, Chen added.
With yesterday’s confirmation, five hotel employees and one subcontractor have now tested positive for COVID-19, as well as three of their family members.
Of the 80 people peripherally linked to the hotel from April 19 to Wednesday last week, 73 have tested negative and one positive, while six are still being tested, the CECC said.
For its harm to public health, Novotel was yesterday fined NT$150,000 by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
Information provided by the CECC and the Taoyuan City Government indicated that the hotel placed CAL crew under quarantine in areas not sanctioned for quarantine use, it said.
As it has damaged the national interest in contravention of Article 53 of the Act for the Development of Tourism (發展觀光條例), the ministry fined the hotel the maximum amount permitted under the act.
Besides the one domestic case, the center also confirmed 12 imported cases of the disease, the highest number since Dec. 6 last year.
The cases involve nine migrant workers from the Philippines, two from Vietnam and one from Indonesia, who came to work in Taiwan, the CECC said.
Eleven of them tested positive during quarantine, while one had a fever when she arrived and tested positive after being sent to hospital, it added.
As of yesterday, the nation had recorded 1,173 cases, including 12 deaths, CECC data showed.
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