A small cluster of COVID-19 infections involving EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) pilots is under control, while a cluster linked to a preschool has likely run its course, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
No new cases have been linked to the EVA Airways cluster since two pilots were reported to have the disease on Sept. 3 and the son of one of them was reported as being infected the following day, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center.
A total of 519 people who were listed as contacts of the three were quarantined for 14 days and tested negative for COVID-19, he said.
Photo courtesy of the Central Epidemic Command Center
Chen said it was “case closed” for the small cluster of the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration on Friday said it had fined the pilot who was found to have spread the disease to his son NT$400,000 (US$14,422).
He was also dismissed from the airline for contravening quarantine protocols.
EVA Airways was fined NT$12 million for its failure to supervise the pilot, the agency added.
Regarding the Delta variant cluster at a preschool and apartment complex in New Taipei City, Chen said it would be clear today if the spread of the disease had run its course.
From Sept. 5 to Thursday, 33 cases were linked to a preschool in the city’s Banciao District (板橋) and a residential building where one of the cases lived, the CECC said.
The cases included 10 children and two staff members from the preschool, as well as relatives, neighbors and people who came into contact with them, it said.
Among the 3,600 people listed as contacts, 3,472 tested negative for COVID-19, while 2,638 people have been quarantined, Chen said.
Once the test results of the last batch of 100 contacts come back today, the CECC would be able to determine whether the cluster was under control, he said.
The clusters were not linked, as the groups contracted genetically distinct versions of the Delta variant, Chen said.
Initial genome sequencing also found that an airplane cabin cleaner at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport was not infected with the same Delta variant identified in either clusters, he said.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said that health authorities have identified the aircraft the cleaner worked on, which carried one or two imported cases of COVID-19 from the Middle East earlier this month.
While no new local cases were reported, Chen said that the public should remain vigilant during the four-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, which began yesterday.
The CECC reported six new imported COVID-19 cases. They are two Taiwanese returning from the Philippines, and three Indonesians and one Bangladeshi traveling from their respective countries.
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