People who have been released from isolation after an acute COVID-19 infection do not need to be tested for the disease when admitted to a hospital, or accompanying or visiting a patient, starting on the 15th day after the onset of symptoms and for the next three months, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
More than 2.4 million people in Taiwan have this year been diagnosed with COVID-19, with the majority of them infected during a local outbreak that began in April.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the CECC informed local health departments on Monday of the revised COVID-19 testing exemption at healthcare facilities.
Photo: CNA
People with COVID-19 who have completed isolation are covered by the testing exemption from the 15th day after the onset of symptoms, or the day on which they tested positive, and for the next three months, Chen said.
These include hospitalized patients, people accompanying hospitalized patients, people visiting hospitalized patients, healthcare workers, testing personnel, and patients being observed in an emergency room for more than 24 hours and the people accompanying them, he said, adding that healthcare facilities can decide when to implement the change.
At COVID-19 designated hospitals across the nation, 43.1 percent of the beds were empty, but in southern Taiwan, where daily reported cases are rising, 29.8 percent of the beds were empty, Chen said.
Hospitals in southern Taiwan have been working to make more hospital beds available for COVID-19 patients with moderate to severe symptoms, he said.
Prescriptions for oral antiviral drugs for treating COVID-19 have been going smoothly, Chen said, adding that on Monday, 121,402 courses of Paxlovid and 29,546 courses of Molnipiravir were prescribed, the highest number prescribed in a single day.
At centralized quarantine facilities and enhanced disease prevention hotels, where high-risk COVID-19 patients are admitted, 55.2 percent and 49.3 percent of the beds were empty respectively, he added.
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