The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 320 locally transmitted COVID-19 infections, 166 backlogged cases and 21 deaths.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that among the 320 local infections, 169 are male and 151 are female, from under the age of five to over 90.
They began displaying symptoms from May 7 to Friday, he said.
Photo courtesy of the Central Epidemic Command Center
Of the 486 cases reported yesterday, 224 live in New Taipei City, followed by Taipei with 168 cases, Taichung with 33, Taoyuan with 19, Keelung with 14, Taitung and Yilan counties with five each, and Hualien and Chiayi counties with four each, while six other cities and counties had one to three cases each.
Among them, 36 had visited Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), two were linked to a cluster involving hostess teahouses in Wanhua, 158 cases had clear infection sources, while 49 cases had an unclear connection to previous cases and 241 were under investigation.
“The case counts in areas other than Taipei and New Taipei City are increasing, and the areas are expanding, too,” Chen said, adding that the number of cases linked to teahouses in Wanhua or with a history of travel to Wanhua is dropping, indicating that the virus is spreading beyond people from the original hotspots.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Looking at the daily case counts with the added backlogged cases shows that the COVID-19 situation has not rapidly worsened, but the case counts have been about the same over the past few days, not showing much improvement, so people should still practice level 3 enhanced disease prevention measures, Chen said.
Contact tracing has found that many of the confirmed cases visited traditional markets or evening markets before they were diagnosed with COVID-19, so people should be especially careful, Chen said.
People should not visit markets when they are likely to be crowded, wear a mask, practice good hand hygiene after handling cash, and wash their hands thoroughly after returning home, he said.
Of the 21 deaths, 13 were men and eight were women. They were between the ages of 30 and 100, and died between Sunday last week and Friday. They began experiencing symptoms from May 11 to Tuesday and tested positive from Monday last week to yesterday.
One of the people who died was a 36-year-old man from New Taipei City with several family members who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 before him. He tested positive on Wednesday and was to be transported to a centralized quarantine facility on Thursday, but he was found on Thursday morning experiencing out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital.
He is the youngest person in Taiwan to have died from COVID-19, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who the is CECC’s spokesperson, said on Friday.
Chuang yesterday said that of the 21 deaths reported yesterday, 19 had underlying health conditions, and of 87 deaths reported since May 11, three had died at home.
Asked why one person died on Sunday, but their test result was only reported yesterday, Chuang said that when a person dies of COVID-19, the hospital conducts preliminary contact tracing before reporting the case to the CECC.
Upon receiving the report of the death, the CECC also conducts basic contact tracing, so there is usually a gap between the time of death and when it is reported by the center, he said, adding that the center would try to reduce that gap.
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