The Taipei City Government yesterday launched the “Hulin Special Project” to expand COVID-19 testing for people living near Hulin Street in Xinyi District (信義), after a spike in COVID-19 infections was confirmed among residents in the area.
Thirty cases of COVID-19 from 13 households near Hulin Street, including three households that each have four cases, were confirmed between June 1 and Saturday, the city government said on Saturday.
Sixteen of the cases had been released after treatment, while 14 remained in isolation, it said, adding that 144 close contacts, excluding family members who live together, were also in isolation.
Photo: CNA
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Saturday announced the Hulin Special Project, in which residents of eight boroughs were asked to register with their borough wardens for COVID-19 testing at Taipei Municipal Yong-Ji Elementary School yesterday.
The school’s testing station was expected to test 3,300 people, including an estimated 400 people from each of the boroughs and some vendors from the Hulin Street Market and Yongchun Market (永春市場), Ko said.
However, several borough wardens yesterday said that the plan was announced too abruptly, and that it had been difficult to compile lists of residents who wanted to be tested, as they had received an enormous number of telephone calls since the project was announced.
Many residents arrived at the site yesterday, only to be denied a test, as they had not registered beforehand. They were asked to return after 6:30pm to register for a test the following day.
Asked about the project yesterday, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center, said it was implemented “relatively hastily.”
Chen suggested that people who have been in the area and experience suspected COVID-19 symptoms could be allowed to be tested at the station, and the city government could allow people to register for testing at the site using their identification cards, as is done at some hospital testing stations.
The city government said that 3,183 people had been tested at the site as of 5pm yesterday, and those who were not able to receive a test would be given a number so that they could be tested today.
Testing would continue as needed, he added.
Responding to accusations that the city government did not conduct contact tracing and was too slow in announcing the cluster infection, as the first case in the area was confirmed on June 1, Ko yesterday said that the 14 cases from five households were reported between June 14 and Monday last week.
It was not until Monday last week that the city government noticed that the area might have become a hot spot, so a provisional task force was set up on Wednesday last week, he said.
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