The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 14 locally transmitted cases of COVID-19, including three workers at a Kaohsiung oil refinery, as well as 53 imported cases.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said the imported cases consisted of 16 inbound travelers who tested positive at the airport and 37 people who tested positive during or upon ending quarantine.
He said that 16 people among 467 passengers on 13 flights that arrived on Tuesday tested positive upon arrival — a positivity rate of 3.43 percent.
Photo: Chen Wen-chan, Taipei Times
Among the local infections, seven who tested negative when placed under isolation, but later tested positive pose a lower risk of infection to the community, Chen said, adding that a majority of the cases were in New Taipei City and Kaohsiung.
Two of the local cases are a preschool child and her father, who were placed under isolation after a cluster of infections were reported in a preschool in Kaohsiung, he said.
The preschool cluster is linked to a transmission chain first detected among workers at a hotel in Yilan County, he said.
As the close contacts of the confirmed cases in the Yilan hotel cluster had been monitored until Tuesday, and no new cases have been found, except for the father and daughter, who were already under isolation, the center is calling the cluster case closed, Chen said.
Two cases in New Taipei City who also tested positive during isolation are linked to a cluster involving workers at a quarry in Kaohsiung, he said.
A total of 17 people in the same family as the two cases, who are relatives that got together in Miaoli County during the Lunar New Year holiday, have been diagnosed with COVID-19, he said.
Another case who tested positive during isolation is linked to the Kaohsiung Harbor cluster, he said.
One new case is the granddaughter of an infected airport police officer with an unclear source of infection that was reported on Tuesday, Chen said, adding that four new cases are linked to an infected interior designer in New Taipei City, whose source of infection is also unknown.
The four cases include the designer’s roommate, who tested positive during isolation, and a woman who dined at the same restaurant at the same time as the designer, as well as two colleagues of the woman, he said.
Chen said the remaining four cases are linked to two previous cases — a mother (case No. 19,730) and son (case No. 19,732) — in Kaohsiung whose infection sources are unknown, prompting concern at the center.
The four cases include a client of case No. 19,732 who tested positive after isolation, he said.
The three other cases are employees of state-owned CPC Corp, Taiwan’s (CPC) Kaohsiung oil refinery, he said.
Case No. 19,732 also visited another company in Kaohsiung and was greeted by the company owner’s son, he said.
The owner has another son working at the refinery, and the plant promptly conducted COVID-19 tests on about 2,300 employees after it was informed that its employee’s family member was listed as a close contact, he said.
Three employees tested positive, and contact tracing found that one of the three employees had visited a restaurant where a previous case — case No. 19,733, with an unknown infection source — worked, he said.
As case No. 19,733 took the order and served the infected employee when he visited, the cases might be linked, Chen added.
As the Kaohsiung refinery is an important part of the nation’s infrastructure, the CECC, the Kaohsiung City Government and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are closely monitoring the situation, Chen said.
The office where the infected employees work has 28 employees, working in four groups of seven to ensure smooth 24-hour operations. As the seven people in a group have been placed under isolation, the three other groups have been left to handle operations.
The three groups are working separate from each other, with the 21 workers staying in the company’s dormitory, separated from their family for the meantime, Chen said.
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