The Taipei City Government yesterday afternoon upgraded the Taipei Emergency Response Center to “level 1” — the highest level — to comply with the Central Epidemic Command Center’s COVID-19 containment efforts, but is facing criticism for a “quarantine loophole” said to have resulted in the death of a woman with a fever.
The city government has started holding daily virus briefings, city deputy spokesman Tai Yu-wen (戴于文) said.
However, the city government’s lack of action constituted a loophole in disease-prevention efforts, said Taipei City Councilor Hsu Li-hsin (徐立信) and the family of the woman, a 30-year-old who died on Sunday.
Photo: Yang Hsin-hui, Taipei Times
The Taipei Department of Health should have tested the woman’s body to see whether she died from COVID-19, Hsu said, adding that the city government remained idle for five days.
The woman had not recently traveled outside Taiwan, the family said.
She had felt “uncomfortable” after work and had a fever, but chose to take medicine instead of seeing a doctor, the family said, adding that her husband found her dead the following day.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that the prosecutor on the case contacted the department about whether the woman should have been under quarantine, but the department said that she was not on any quarantine lists.
The prosecutor is investigating all avenues, including looking into the woman’s colleagues and work environment, while the husband and family of the deceased were invited to submit affidavits, the office said.
The family said that they failed to understand the city’s delay and wished the process could be expedited so that they could handle the woman’s funeral arrangements.
The woman’s body is being preserved at a funeral parlor, Hsu said, questioning whether the virus could be detected after a body had been frozen for five days.
The department’s Disease Control Division head Yu Tsan-hua (余燦華) said it had been confirmed that the woman was not on any of quarantine lists.
The department was not aware of whether the prosecutor wanted the body to be tested for the virus, Yu added.
The department would collect samples and conduct the virus test, Yu said, adding that the results would be forwarded to the prosecutor.
Additional reporting by Tsai Ya-hua and Yang Hsin-hui
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