A growing cluster of COVID-19 cases that started at a religious gathering in Taipei has become an issue of major concern, as all but one of 16 new domestic cases recorded yesterday were linked to the gathering, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.
The first case in the cluster was confirmed on Sunday — a male New Taipei City resident who had contracted the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 — and since then the number has grown to 30, including 15 reported yesterday, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, told a news conference.
The man’s roommate and three other contacts are among those who have tested positive for COVID-19, Chen said, adding that one of them had been part of the religious gathering in Taipei on Sunday.
Photo: CNA
On Thursday, eight people who were at the gathering were confirmed to be infected with COVID-19, while 15 of the 16 new domestic cases reported yesterday were also linked to the cluster — seven in New Taipei City, five in Taipei, two in Kaohsiung and one in Tainan, he said.
The CECC sees the cluster as a matter of major concern, given that people who attended the gathering on Sunday traveled from across Taiwan, he said.
Local authorities are working on contact tracing of confirmed cases in an effort to contain the spread of the disease, Chen added.
Meanwhile, the one other new domestic case reported yesterday was the child of a Tainan resident who had tested positive on Wednesday after he visited a friend in Kaohsiung, the CECC said.
The friend is the relative of an employee at the Dalin Refinery Plant in Kaohsiung, which has been the site of another domestic cluster of nine cases that is now under control, as about 3,000 contacts have tested negative, Chen said.
Two of the employee’s relatives, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, were confirmed to be infected with the Omicron BA.2 variant of SARS-CoV-2, which had caused a cluster linked to the Port of Kaohsiung, he said.
At a separate news conference, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said that two new COVID-19 cases were reported in the city on Thursday which were part of the religious gathering cluster.
One is an employee at a Yageo Corp factory in Kaohsiung and 180 of his 392 identified contacts have tested negative so far, the mayor said.
In Tainan, the city government said that 71 people had been listed as contacts of a woman who was part of the religious gathering, while 41 have been identified as contacts of her child, who tested positive after being placed in quarantine.
Thirteen of yesterday’s new domestic cases were classified as breakthrough infections, while three were unvaccinated, including a boy under the age of 10 who is not eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in Taiwan, the CECC said.
In addition to the domestic cases, the CECC reported 51 imported cases yesterday.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique