Patients referred to other hospitals or discharged from a Taoyuan hospital where a COVID-19 cluster infection has occurred would be placed under 14 days of mandatory isolation, the Central Epidemic Command Center said yesterday.
The center’s extended quarantine standard also applies to 427 healthcare professionals.
Ten domestic cases — two physicians, four nurses, three family members and a foreign caregiver — have been reported since Tuesday last week, when a doctor tested positive after treating a COVID-19 patient at the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Taoyuan General Hospital.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, on Tuesday announced that the center would clear 220 patients from the hospital’s high-risk areas by referring them to other hospitals from Tuesday to yesterday.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the center’s medical response division, yesterday said that after an evaluation, the number of patients was reduced to 169, as 51 patients could be discharged.
Of the 169 referral patients, 79 had short encounters with confirmed cases, while 90 did not have any contact with the cases, he said.
Twenty of them have been moved out, while the others are waiting for COVID-19 test results and for the receiving hospital to finish making arrangements, Lo said.
As patients who were treated by infected medical personnel are at high risk of having been infected, they would stay in single rooms, he said.
Chen yesterday said the patients must produce a negative COVID-19 test result before being transferred to an isolated room, and they would be tested again after 14 days of isolation or before being discharged.
The patients discharged from the Taoyuan hospital would also be placed under 14 days of home isolation and tested upon ending isolation, he said.
As the source of the cluster infection is identifiable, the center does not plan to tighten local disease prevention regulations yet, Chen said.
However, he urged people to wear a mask and thoroughly wash their hands more frequently, and carry disinfectant spray to disinfect their hands for better protection.
Chen also announced that access controls to hospitals had been tightened as of yesterday, reducing visiting periods from twice per day to one, with only two visitors allowed during each visit.
Only one family member or caregiver can accompany each hospitalized patient, while visitors or accompanying people must register their names and contact information with the hospital, the center said.
People under home isolation, home quarantine or self-health management should refrain from visiting hospitalized patients, the center said.
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