After China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) on Monday said it was worried about Taiwan’s COVID-19 disease prevention measures, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), said that China does not have good credit either.
The Shanghai Municipal Health Commission reported three cases in which travelers from Taiwan tested positive for COVID-19 on Aug. 19, Aug. 24 and on Sunday.
TAO spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) said in a news release issued on Monday night that China has confirmed three imported COVID-19 cases from Taiwan in the past two weeks, and that “the high frequency has sparked great concern among people on both sides of the [Taiwan] Strait, worrying about Taiwan’s disease control.”
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Ma asked: “How many big flaws are still in Taiwan’s COVID-19 prevention, how many actual infected patients are there and how much risk are the compatriots on the island [Taiwan] facing?”
He said that these issues could not be neglected.
Ma also urged the Democratic Progressive Party to be responsible for preventing and controlling the disease professionally, and to stop the chain of infection.
Although there had recently been a few cases in which travelers from Taiwan had tested positive in China, there are still uncertainties regarding the sources of infection, Chen said yesterday, adding that Taiwan had properly conducted contact tracing in the nation as soon as it received reports of the cases.
Asked if Ma’s remarks would harm Taiwan’s international status, Chen said: “I don’t think so. It is normal to be questioned by other countries, but China itself does not have good [international] credit either.”
Everyone knows well whether Taiwan’s disease prevention measures have big flaws, but the nation would continue to conduct contact tracing and see if there is room for improvement, he said.
Among the three cases reported in Shanghai, the first tested negative twice, then tested positive in a third test, followed by two negative results in the fourth and fifth tests, so whether he actually contracted the disease is still uncertain, said Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), the CECC’s spokesman.
The second case tested negative upon arrival, but later tested positive after six to seven days in Shanghai, so the source of infection is still unknown, he said, adding that the third case likely contracted the disease in the US before coming to Taiwan and then going to Shanghai.
The CECC thanks the Chinese authorities for providing information on the three cases when the center asked about them, Chuang said, adding that tests on all close contacts of the three people were negative, but the CECC’s specialist advisory panel would decide when to close the cases.
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