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 brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
RSS