The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 76 locally transmitted COVID-19 infections and 10 deaths.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that among the 76 infections, 14 people tested positive during quarantine or upon ending quarantine, meaning that 62 people were not under monitoring.
Taipei reported the most cases at 48, followed by New Taipei City with 24 cases, Taoyuan with three and Hsinchu City with one, he said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
As of yesterday morning, 77.3 percent of the confirmed cases reported between May 11 and Thursday — 10,551 from a total of 13,654 cases — had been released from isolation, Chen said.
He said that the number of people diagnosed with COVID-19 on Thursday was high because of expanded testing conducted at Taipei’s wholesale markets.
Forty-one of the 76 local infections were from expanded testing at the markets, and all the local infections reported yesterday were from four cities and counties, which suggests that the COVID-19 outbreak in Taiwan is being brought under control, Chen said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Regarding cluster infections at wholesale markets in Taipei, Chen said that 88 cases have so far been confirmed at the First Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market (第一果菜批發市場) in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), 21 have been confirmed at the Second Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market (第二果菜批發市場) in Zhongshan District (中山) and 111 at the Huannan Market (環南市場) in Wanhua.
Of the total 220 confirmed cases, 93 are Taipei residents, 117 are New Taipei City residents and 10 are residents of other cities or counties, CECC data showed.
The CECC and the Taipei City Government on Friday established a joint forward command center to respond to cluster infections at the city’s wholesale markets.
Chen said that a testing station had been set up at Huannan Market and began operating from 8am yesterday.
COVID-19 alert messages have been sent to about 80,000 mobile phone users near Huannan Market, advising them to get tested if they have visited the market and experienced COVID-19 symptoms after June 8, he said.
Contact tracing for 40 confirmed cases at Huannan Market and five cases at Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Co (台北農產運銷) has been completed, and 183 close contacts of the 40 confirmed cases have been placed in isolation, while about 2,600 people at the First Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market have been tested, Chen said.
More response measures were being taken at the three markets yesterday, including testing at the First Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market, requesting that the Second Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market draft a disease prevention operation plan, and enhanced crowd controls at Huannan Market, he said.
The clusters highlighted a lack of control over the personnel frequently entering and exiting the markets, so the establishments should recount and list all associated workers, not only vendors, and enhance health monitoring measures, Chen said.
Another round of testing of all personnel at Huannan Market is expected to take place on Wednesday next week, he added.
Regarding a cluster infection involving the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 in Pingtung County, Chen said that 490 people associated with a confirmed case who visited Fangliao General Hospital several times have been placed in isolation and 466 of them have tested negative.
He said 2,436 people who were not close contacts have also tested negative.
A total of 12,744 people have tested negative at community screening stations in Pingtung County’s Fangshan (枋山) and Fangliao (枋寮) townships, he added.
“We can say that the local communities are safe, and if the remaining test results ... are negative, we can consider the Pingtung cluster to have ended,” Chen said, adding that the local situation would be monitored until Sunday next week — 14 days after the last case was diagnosed.
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