The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday revealed several locations in Taoyuan and Taipei visited by two people confirmed to have COVID-19 when they were likely contagious.
Case No. 1,183 — a China Airlines (華航) pilot, the husband of case No. 1,184 — on May 1 visited the “Pilot in Cafe” coffee shop from 12pm to 12:30pm, the Gloria Outlets (華泰名品城) shopping mall from 1pm to 1:30pm and Hutung Peng’s Old Shop Xinjiang Ramen (胡同彭家老舖新疆拉麵) from 2pm to 2:30pm, all in Taoyuan, the CECC said.
People who visited the venues at about those times should pay attention to their health condition, and should seek medical attention at a designated COVID-19 testing hospital if they develop symptoms before Wednesday next week, it said.
Photo: Lee Jung-ping, Taipei Times
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, made a correction to information announced on Saturday after police gathered security footage from surveillance cameras to confirm the public locations case No. 1,184 visited last week.
The woman visited a branch of Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行) in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) between 10am and 11am on Tuesday, rather than the previously reported 11am on Wednesday, Chen said.
He also provided an update on an expanded polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and antibody testing program of all 1,279 China Airlines pilots, saying that only 21 pilots have not undergone the tests.
Of those, nine are on vacation abroad, six are on unpaid leave, three had been suspended from flying after failing physical examinations, and three were on duty and would be tested today, he said.
The program would end after the tests results from those three pilots come back, he added.
The center is considering temporarily extending the period for identifying close contacts for isolation from two days prior to the onset of symptoms to three days, Chen said, adding that the proposal would be discussed with the center’s panel of specialists this week.
The CECC yesterday reported one imported case of COVID-19 — a traveler from the Philippines.
The traveler is a woman in her 20s who arrived in Taiwan on Thursday to visit a critically ill relative, Chen said.
The woman provided a negative PCR test result from within three days of boarding the plane to Taiwan, quarantined at a hotel and underwent a self-paid test at a hospital on Friday, and the result came back positive, he said.
She also tested positive for antibodies against the novel coronavirus, he added.
Separately yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that two more employees at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India have been confirmed to have COVID-19, adding up to eight confirmed cases at the center, accounting for one-fifth of its employees.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) is concerned about the increase in cases at the center, and is discussing and evaluating an emergency preparedness plan, the ministry said.
The ministry would continue to arrange PCR tests for the center’s employees and they would be asked to work from home until Friday, it said.
Additional reporting by Lu Yi-hsuan
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS