Medical experts are calling for life sciences graduates to help with COVID-19 testing to bolster response measures if a second wave of the disease arrives.
Citing a study by researchers in China, the experts said there might be as many asymptomatic carriers of SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — as people confirmed to be infected.
Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), who is an epidemiologist, said he does not think it is necessary to test people from all walks of life, but those whose work puts them in frequent contact with others would be a useful group to sample.
Shih Shin-ru (施信如), head of Chang Gung University’s Research Center for Emerging Viral Infections, said that the roughly 30,000 tests administered in Taiwan were conducted on samples from people suspected of carrying the virus.
However, as one case of locally transmitted infection demonstrated, there is a need to expand testing, Shih said.
The person was a Taiwanese with no recent travel history who showed no symptoms for the month after they were estimated to have become infected, she said.
It is possible that many more people have been infected than have been tested, she said, adding that waiting for major symptoms before testing creates loopholes.
People admitted to emergency rooms with breathing problems should also be tested, she said.
“Taiwan staved off the first wave of infections before the Lunar New Year, but now there are infected people returning to Taiwan from abroad,” Chen said.
Many are worried that even those who test negative for the virus or show no symptoms might have been carriers and so there are infected people in communities who are asymptomatic or have only light symptoms, he said.
Convenience store workers, taxi drivers, medical care professionals and others who frequently come into contact with the public would be good candidates, he said.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is spokesman for the Central Epidemic Command Center, said that up to 3,800 people could be tested daily, which is sufficient for current needs, with roughly 500 tests being conducted daily.
Huang Kao-pin (黃高彬), director of pediatric infectious disease at Kaohsiung’s Chang Gung Medical Foundation, said that as the situation in Taiwan has not reached the epidemic proportions seen in the US and Europe, there is no need to test everyone who returns from abroad.
Doing so would waste resources and result in complaints, Huang said.
Additional reporting by Lin Hui-chin, Chien Hui-ju and Su Yung-yao
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai
RSS