The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported one local COVID-19 case, which was linked to a family cluster of infections in Taipei and New Taipei City.
The case was a woman in her 30s who lives in Taipei, said Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman.
She is a relative of a case reported on Friday, Chuang said, adding that she had received one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
Photo: CNA
As she and the infected family member had direct contact on Feb. 27, she was listed as a contact and tested, he said.
Her result came back positive with a cycle threshold value of 28, Chuang said.
“The infection source of the cluster is still unknown,” Chuang said, adding that the CECC is continuing to conduct contact tracing and genome sequencing.
Separately, the Taipei Department of Health yesterday said that the women is in hospital, despite being asymptomatic.
Three close contacts have been placed under home isolation, the department said, adding that two of them tested negative, while one test result is pending.
Four cases have been detected in the family cluster so far, including one in New Taipei City and three in Taipei.
Taiwan yesterday also reported 61 imported cases.
As of Friday, the first-dose vaccination rate was 83.17 percent, the second-dose vaccination rate was 77.56 percent and the booster rate was 46.3 percent, Chuang said.
In other developments, the mandatory quarantine for Taiwan-based airline crew members who have returned from long-haul flights was on Monday shortened to five days in a designated hotel or at home, as long as they are the only person in their household, followed by five days self-health management.
However, the Taoyuan District Court yesterday said in a news release that four airline pilots had petitioned the court for a writ of habeas corpus, which required the court to determine whether their “detention” is lawful, as their airline did not allow them to quarantine at home, despite living alone and being willing to regularly get tested as required by the guidelines.
The court said it late on Friday ordered the airline to release the pilots.
The CDC and the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) had no lawful cause for detaining them and did not follow the procedures required for detaining a person.
Chuang said that crew members have since Monday been allowed to sign an affidavit that they would follow the rules and return home.
The four might have been prevented from returning home due to technical issues, Chuang said, adding that the the CAA has been asked to supervise the airlines’ inspections of crew members’ isolation sites, to protect their right to choose their isolation sites and ensure the safety of local communities.
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