The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 10 local COVID-19 cases, six of whom had visited a steakhouse in Taoyuan where an infection cluster has been reported.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that of the 10 local infections, one case — No. 17,928 — is a Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport disease prevention staffer who works in the area where inbound travelers collect their saliva for a COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, and sometimes at the fever screening station.
The staffer had tested negative in a PCR test on Jan. 9 and a rapid test on Friday, but she tested positive in expanded PCR testing of airport personnel on Saturday, with a cycle threshold value of 21, he said, adding that she does not have any symptoms.
Photo courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control
Considering her previous test results were negative, it does not seem likely that her infection is linked to the Taoyuan airport cluster, but that can only be determined after more contact tracing and genome sequencing data are obtained, Chen said.
Six of the new local cases ate at Tasty Steak’s (西堤牛排) Zhongli Zhongshan branch in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢) on Jan. 9, he said.
A cluster linked to the steakhouse was reported last week, including 13 employees of a bank who had a year-end meal there on Jan. 7; three steakhouse workers and some of their friends, family and classmates; and several steakhouse diners.
The steakhouse cluster is likely linked to the airport cluster, as three bank employees have so far been found to have the same strain of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 as the airport cluster, and one bank employee had close contact with a personal care aide who was linked to the airport.
Two of the new local infections are students from the same school as a steakhouse worker who tested positive for COVID-19 — case No. 17,774 — and her cousin, who lives in the same house and also tested positive for the virus, Chen said.
A separate local case — case No. 17,934 — is a woman in her 40s who tested positive at a community testing station.
She was tested along with her daughter, because she was concerned that her daughter might have been exposed to case No. 17,774, as they had taken the same bus to school, Chen said.
The mother tested positive, while her daughter tested negative, he said, adding that more data would be needed to clarify whether she is associated with the steakhouse cluster.
Asked if the steakhouse diners contracted COVID-19 from the environment or from the steakhouse workers, Chen said both routes of transmission were possible.
He said it is clear so far that people who were exposed to the workers or visited the steakhouse after Jan. 7 have a high risk of infection.
Although people who submitted their contact registration information when visiting the steakhouse have been told to get tested for COVID-19, the center urges anyone who visited the restaurant to get tested as soon as possible, Chen said.
“We cannot strive for a zero-risk society, but we can try to keep it at a lower risk,” Chen said, adding that recent local infections showed that the Omicron variant can spread very quickly.
He urged people to thoroughly practice disease prevention measures, including wearing a mask properly, frequently washing their hands and using disinfectant on their hands if they cannot immediately wash them after touching objects in public.
The CECC yesterday also reported 41 imported cases of COVID-19.
Chen said they include 18 cases who tested positive after arriving on long-haul flights, and 23 who tested positive in quarantine.
Eighteen people among 498 passengers on seven long-haul flights that arrived on Saturday tested positive — a testing positivity rate of 3.65 percent — while 24 people among 334 passengers on five flights that arrived yesterday morning tested positive — a positivity rate of 7.19 percent, he added.
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