The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) is investigating a potential COVID-19 cluster at a quarantine hotel in Kaohsiung, where four guests staying on the same floor were confirmed to have the virus between Sunday and yesterday, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center.
The Kaohsiung City Government has sent people quarantining at the hotel to government-run facilities, Chen said, adding that all guests who stayed at the hotel from Jan. 19 would undergo additional testing.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said that one of the cases stayed in room 318 after returning to Taiwan from China on Jan 20.
Photo: CNA
After his quarantine, the man returned home to New Taipei City on Tuesday last week, where he was tested for COVID-19 on Monday after experiencing an itchy throat the previous day, Chen Chi-mai said.
Before his test came back positive on Tuesday, he had already visited multiple places in Kaohsiung, Chen Chi-mai said, adding that the Kaohsiung Department of Health fined him for breaching self-health management rules.
Three others who quarantined on the same floor also tested positive, the city government said.
Photo courtesy of the CECC
One of them started their quarantine on Jan. 19 in room 317, after arriving from Vietnam, it said, adding that the person developed symptoms on Friday last week and tested positive a day later.
Another entered their quarantine on Thursday last week in room 318, after arriving from Hong Kong, it said, adding that the person developed symptoms on Tuesday and tested positive on Thursday.
Based on their cycle threshold values and the time they started to report symptoms, the New Taipei City man was likely infected by one of the two cases on or around Jan. 20, Chen Chi-mai said, adding that gene sequencing results are pending.
The hotel was inspected in December and last month, with no major issues reported, he said, adding that the man might have caught the virus through environmental contamination.
The hotel has been pre-emptively shut down, he added.
Taiwan yesterday reported 25 local COVID-19 cases, including 12 in Kaohsiung, which made it one of the nation’s two hot spots, the CECC said.
Seventeen of the local cases were fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and the vaccination status of four cases is under investigation, the CECC said, adding that the remaining cases are younger than five.
Of the 12 Kaohsiung cases, nine are linked to a cluster in Kaohsiung Harbor and three are linked to a kindergarten, Chen Shih-chung said.
The kindergarten cluster is linked to a hotel cluster in Yilan County, he said, citing genome sequencing results ruling out links to the harbor cluster.
Taiwan also reported 46 imported cases — arrivals from Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Peru, the Philippines, Thailand, the US and Vietnam.
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