Rapid COVID-19 tests conducted at Chaoyang University of Technology (CYUT) in Taichung on Thursday and yesterday uncovered an additional 19 possible cases of COVID-19 after several of its students were infected after visiting a KTV.
As of noon yesterday, 19 of 793 faculty members and students who had been tested had results come back positive, Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) told a press briefing in the city.
The 19 have also undergone a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test and if the results come back positive, they will be hospitalized, Lu said.
If the tests come back negative, they will be instructed to isolate at home, she said.
Lu called on the rest of the 14,000 people who study or work at the university to get tested if they develop symptoms.
The university has announced that all remaining classes this semester, which ends on June 27, will be conducted online.
Many students have returned home, it said.
Taichung yesterday added five domestically transmitted infections, two of them CYUT students who were at the KTV, but the cluster has expanded beyond those who attended the gathering, the city said.
A student from China Medical University in Taichung who began experiencing symptoms on Tuesday is likely to have been infected at the KTV, because he was in a room next to the CYUT group, Lu said.
A CYUT student — a roommate of a student who attended the KTV gathering — and her mother tested positive, the city government said, adding that the mother tested positive on Thursday and her daughter yesterday.
The possible KTV cluster was discovered when a student tested positive on May 19, two days after developing symptoms, although the source remains unclear.
Those who were at the KTV from 11pm on Friday last week to 7am the following day should get tested as soon as possible, Lu said.
Thirteen rapid testing stations have been established across the city, 10 at hospitals and three at city hotspots, the city government said.
Taichung yesterday banned dining in restaurants to reduce the risk of exposure.
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