The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday introduced five enhanced COVID-19 monitoring measures to prevent the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 from entering local communities.
It also reported four local and two imported COVID-19 cases, and no deaths.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said the four cases — two men and two women — were reported in New Taipei City.
Photo: CNA
Two tested positive during isolation, and the infection sources of the other two remain unclear and are being investigated, he said.
The risk level for Taipei and New Taipei City has been lowered from “high-medium” risk to “medium” risk, but the center is still debating whether visitors should be allowed at long-term care centers in the two municipalities, Chen said, adding that a decision would be made at a meeting tomorrow.
The two imported cases were a student from Russia and a man from Lithuania, CECC data showed.
They both presented negative test results from within three days of boarding a plane to Taiwan and tested negative upon arrival at the airport, but experienced symptoms during quarantine, the data showed.
While the local COVID-19 situation is under control, the center would implement enhanced measures to monitor for virus transmission in local communities, Chen said.
The measures include distributing government-funded COVID-19 home test kits to contracted healthcare facilities from Monday next week, so that physicians can give the kits to high-risk patients, he said.
High-risk workers at the nation’s four international airports would be given a government-funded rapid test every seven days, starting from Monday next week.
Wastewater surveillance would be expanded from 11 areas to 22 to detect early signs of viral transmission within communities, Chen said, adding that another measure would be the continued testing for COVID-19 contamination on imported food packaging, although there have been no positive tests so far.
An antibody test would be conducted to determine the prevalence of COVID-19, its geographical distribution and infection trend in Taiwan, he said, adding that 5,000 random blood samples taken from local blood donation centers between April and last month would be used for the test.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, said that the center has submitted its plan for the antibody test to the institutional review board, and personal identifiers would be removed from the data.
As the Delta variant spreads in many countries, enhanced border control measures and local community COVID-19 monitoring and disease prevention measures must be implemented to prevent it from entering local communities, the CECC said.
Separately, inoculations with the COVID-19 vaccine developed by domestic firm Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp (高端疫苗) began yesterday.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received her first dose of the vaccine at the gymnasium of National Taiwan University’s College of Medicine at about 7:30am.
The process of Tsai checking in with her National Health Insurance card, speaking with a physician and receiving the shot was broadcast live on the her Facebook page.
Asked if anybody had an adverse reaction after being vaccinated, Chen said that, as of noon, three people fainted or felt faint immediately after they were vaccinated, and they all had low blood pressure and a rapid heartbeat.
One case returned home after being assessed and was found to have no other issues, while the other two were taken to hospital for further examination, but had no other obvious problems, so they left the hospital by noon, he said.
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