Changhua County Public Health Bureau Director Yeh Yen-po (葉彥伯) yesterday defended the county’s testing of people under home quarantine who have no symptoms of COVID-19, saying that if he could turn back the clock, he would have made the same decision.
Yeh had instructed the county to conduct a pathology investigation for COVID-19 and since April has been conducting rapid diagnostic tests of people under home quarantine who have no symptoms.
The nation’s 485th case was discovered on Saturday last week after one of these tests. He was a Taiwanese teen living in the US who arrived on Aug. 5 for a family visit.
.Photo: Chang Tsung-chiu, Taipei Times
The county’s action was a departure from Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) protocols, in which returning travelers who have had no contact with any confirmed COVID-19 patients are tested only if they show symptoms or are traveling from the Philippines.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, on Tuesday instructed the health ministry’s Department of Civil Service Ethics to launch an investigation into the bureau to clarify the matter.
Chen on Thursday said he understood Yeh’s position that studies support testing asymptomatic people for COVID-19, but the bureau should have informed the CECC first.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Yeh said he hoped that the central and local government could continue to work together as they did in February, when their collaborations helped to isolate and test an individual — a taxi driver — who would later become the nation’s first COVID-19 fatality.
Officials and doctors nationwide worked together to help contain the pandemic, Yeh said, citing how Chen collaborated with the National Police Agency and the National Health Insurance Administration to obtain the phone records of the taxi driver.
“We were like the castle walls and the moat keeping COVID-19 at bay,” Yeh said, adding that he hoped the latest incident would soon blow over so that everyone could again focus on disease prevention efforts.
Citing President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Yeh said the nation must stand united against the pandemic, adding: “I personally support Minister Chen 100 percent.”
“The main point of conflict is that the county had done more than what was regulated and if we had not found this one case, by the very nature of pandemics, the one case could become 32 in a matter of months,” Yeh said.
When asked about the possibility that the central government would refuse to pay for the expenses incurred by the county’s screening procedures, Yeh said Changhua had observed all regulations and due procedures when compiling the budget report.
The entire process is transparent and each transaction was documented, Yeh said, adding that Chen has said that as long as doctors had presided over the screening, the central government would pay for all expenses incurred.
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
RSS