Quarantining at home after testing positive for COVID-19 in a rapid screening test would be the “new normal,” Taipei Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) said yesterday after the city adjusted its quarantine measures to free up medical facilities for COVID-19 patients with serious symptoms.
The Taipei Department of Health announced a new set of triage procedures for people who have tested positive for COVID-19 at a rapid screening station.
Effective immediately, anyone who is moderately to seriously ill, regardless of age, would be sent to a hospital in an ambulance, the department said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
People with minor symptoms, those who are older than 55, or younger than 55 with chronic diseases or difficulty quarantining at home would be sent to quarantine centers in designated buses or taxis, it said.
Asymptomatic people under 55 would be required to quarantine at home for 17 days and check in daily with their local health center, the department added.
The more than 1,000 people in quarantine hotels would be instructed to return home after 10 days to undergo another seven days of quarantine as long as they are asymptomatic or have not had a fever for more than one day, Huang said.
Quarantine hotels must accept patients with minor symptoms transferred to them by hospitals, as hospitals must focus on treating more serious cases, she added.
Starting yesterday, orders to quarantine at home apply to contacts of confirmed cases, asymptomatic people who have tested positive in a rapid screening and those who are asymptomatic after spending 10 days in a quarantine hotel, Huang said.
“People need to prepare themselves, as living near confirmed cases will be the new normal,” Huang added.
The city must first come to a halt so that sources of infection can be ascertained and chains of infection severed, Huang said.
The cases being announced now were infected more than two weeks ago, she said, adding that further observation is needed over the next two weeks to ascertain whether infections are trending downward.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS