The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported seven locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, three of whom were linked to a family cluster in Taipei and New Taipei City.
One of the family members, a man in his 40s who lives in New Taipei City, developed a sore throat and fever on Wednesday, and tested positive for COVID-19 in a self-administered rapid test, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), the CECC’s spokesman, told a news conference.
The man immediately sought another test at a hospital, with the result coming back positive yesterday with a cycle threshold value of 14.4, which indicates a high viral load, Chuang said.
Photo courtesy of the CECC
The source of the man’s infection remains unknown, he said, adding that two of the man’s relatives, who live in Taipei, also tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday.
They are among 107 people identified as contacts, of whom 94 have so far tested negative for the disease, Chuang said.
The four other local cases are two women and two men in Tainan whose infections are linked to a tour group cluster that began with a Kaohsiung buffet restaurant employee, who tested positive for the disease last month, the CECC said.
Several of the employee’s family members, including her parents, have tested positive, and the cluster has since spread to a hospital in Tainan, prompting it to suspend outpatient services until tomorrow, after two employees at the hospital tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday.
They are a pharmacist and a pharmacy assistant, and genome sequencing showed that both cases are linked to the tour group cluster, which now totals 24 cases, said CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), who is deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division.
The CECC also reported 75 imported cases, including 45 travelers who tested positive upon arrival. The CECC did not release any information regarding the vaccination status of the imported cases.
To date, Taiwan has confirmed 21,163 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began in early 2020, including 15,482 domestically transmitted infections.
With no deaths reported yesterday, the number of confirmed COVID-19 fatalities in the country remains at 853.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
A Chinese ship ran aground in stormy weather in shallow waters off a Philippines-controlled island in the disputed South China Sea, prompting Filipino forces to go on alert, Philippine military officials said yesterday. When Philippine forces assessed that the Chinese fishing vessel appeared to have run aground in the shallows east of Thitu Island (Jhongye Island, 中業島) on Saturday due to bad weather, Philippine military and coast guard personnel deployed to provide help, but later saw that the ship had been extricated, Philippine navy regional spokesperson Ellaine Rose Collado said. No other details were immediately available, including if there were injuries among
RSS