The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported three new local COVID-19 infections and 11 imported cases, but no deaths.
The local cases are two men and a woman aged between 20 and 80 who reside in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, the CECC said in a news release.
Two of them are linked to a cluster infection at a kindergarten in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋), said Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman.
Photo: CNA
He said they are both associated with the mother of a kindergarten student, who was earlier confirmed to have the virus.
One is her father-in-law, who is in his 70s and lives with them in New Taipei City, and the other is a male colleague in his 50s, Chuang said.
The father-in-law had been isolated in a quarantine hotel since taking a COVID-19 test on Tuesday as a close contact of confirmed cases.
That test was negative, but he tested positive in a second test conducted on Friday, so he has been referred to a hospital for isolation and treatment, Chuang added.
The colleague lives in Taoyuan and had received a rapid test at his workplace on Monday last week, followed by a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test at a hospital the next day, he said.
Both tests came back negative, but he began experiencing a headache and chills that evening, Chuang said.
He had been isolated at a quarantine hotel since Wednesday and he reported experiencing symptoms on Thursday and Friday, so he was tested again for COVID-19 on Saturday, and the result was positive, Chuang added.
As of yesterday, the kindergarten cluster had expanded to 29 cases, CECC data showed.
Among 3,418 people associated with the cluster, 2,476 had been placed under isolation, 880 are practicing self-health management and 62 are practicing self-health monitoring, the data showed.
The other local case is a woman in her 20s who lives in Taipei, Chuang said.
She works in the food service sector, he said, adding that the infection source remained unclear, but is being investigated.
The Taipei Department of Health separately said she works at a restaurant in Zhongshan District (中山) and that contact tracing is being conducted.
McDonald’s Taiwan later yesterday confirmed that the woman is an employee at its Linsen branch.
The department said the restaurant will be closed for three days for disinfection, starting yesterday, and it will temporarily suspend dine-in services until Sept. 26.
The 11 imported cases are from the US, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, the UK and Malaysia, CECC data showed.
As of yesterday morning, 12,439,755 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Taiwan: about 7.94 million doses of the AstraZeneca PLC vaccine, about 3.77 doses of the Moderna Inc vaccine and about 715,000 doses of Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp’s (高端疫苗) vaccine, the data showed.
The first-dose vaccination coverage rate reached 48.58 percent, the data showed.
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