The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported three local COVID-19 infections, five imported cases and zero deaths.
The three domestic cases, all in New Taipei City, tested positive after accompanying either friends or relatives to a hospital, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said at a press briefing.
One of the cases has a known source of infection, while the other two are still being investigated, Hou said, adding that all three have relatively high cycle threshold (CT) levels, indicating that they contracted the disease some time ago.
As for the family cluster in Sansia District (三峽) reported on Sunday, Hou said that antibody tests show the 10 patients contracted the disease at least a month ago.
The city has tested 2,324 people who are potential contacts or who live in the same neighborhood as the family members, and the results have all come back negative, Hou said.
The five imported COVID-19 cases are two arrivals from Indonesia, and one each from the Netherlands, the Philippines and Thailand. They arrived in Taiwan from Friday to Sunday, the center said.
The arrival from Thailand — a Taiwanese man in his 40s — had been vaccinated against COVID-19, CECC data showed.
However, the case was not considered a breakthrough infection, as he only received a single dose of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine in the middle of last month, said Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division.
The other four imported cases had not been vaccinated against COVID-19, he added.
As of yesterday, the CECC had recorded 15,991 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 1,413 imported and 14,525 domestic cases, with 834 deaths.
From May 11 — when the last local outbreak began — to Saturday, 14,761 COVID-19 cases had been confirmed, CECC data showed. Of those, 13,673, or about 92.6 percent, had recovered.
Doctors at 82 community health clinics in 18 cities and counties yesterday also started helping to evaluate clinical symptoms of COVID-19 in people seeking medical attention and distribute government-funded COVID-19 home test kits to patients as needed, the CECC said in a statement.
The program to bolster the monitoring of COVID-19 cases in communities aims to reduce the risk of the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 entering communities and detect domestic cases quickly to stop the virus from spreading, the CECC said.
People who have received home test kits can screen themselves for COVID-19 at home and then report their results anonymously online. Those with a positive result would undergo a polymerase chain reaction test at a testing site nearby, it said.
The number of clinics participating in the program, which runs until Dec. 31, could be adjusted at a later date, depending on how the COVID-19 situation develops, the center said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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