The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported three new measles cases linked to a hospital cluster in central Taiwan, bringing the total number of confirmed infections in the cluster to 19.
The CDC emphasized that the infections remain confined to hospital contacts with no evidence of the outbreak spreading.
In the three new cases, a woman in her 30s, a man in his 20s and a man in his 40s developed symptoms between Wednesday last week and Monday, with rashes developing from Friday last week to Tuesday, a CDC statement said.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
All three new cases had been previously identified as close contacts, the CDC said, adding that the woman and the man in his 20s are medical personnel at the hospital — which has not been disclosed by authorities — and the man in his 40s visited a family member in the same ward, a previously confirmed case.
Regarding the route of transmission in the hospital cluster, CDC Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said the index case — the first documented person in the cluster — traveled back from Vietnam on Dec. 1 last year.
The man developed a fever on the same day, visited the emergency department on Dec. 2 and was subsequently admitted to a hospital ward, he said.
“It wasn’t until Dec. 5 that the patient began to develop a rash, and a suspected measles diagnosis was made on Dec. 6, leading to [the patient’s] transfer to an isolation ward,” he said.
Chuang said that all 17 people infected at the hospital had received measles vaccines.
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
The Taipei City Government yesterday confirmed that it has negotiated a royalties of NT$12.2 billion (US$380 million) with artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia Corp, with the earliest possible signing date set for Wednesday next week. The city has been preparing for Nvidia to build its Taiwan headquarters in Beitou-Shilin Technology Park since last year, and the project has now entered its final stage before the contract is signed. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the city government has completed the royalty price negotiations and would now push through the remaining procedures to sign the contract before
Taipei Zoo welcomes the Lunar New Year this year through its efforts to protect an endangered species of horse native to central Asia that was once fully extinct outside of captivity. The festival ushering in the Year of the Horse would draw attention to the zoo’s four specimens of Przewalski’s horse, named for a Russian geographer who first encountered them in the late 19th century across the steppes of western Mongolia. “Visitors will look at the horses and think that since this is the Year of the Horse: ‘I want to get to know horses,’” said zookeeper Chen Yun-chieh, who has been
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said the name of the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania was agreed by both sides, after Lithuania’s prime minister described a 2021 decision to let Taiwan set up a de facto embassy in Vilnius as a “mistake.” Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene, who entered office in September last year, told the Baltic News Service on Tuesday that Lithuania had begun taking “small first steps” aimed at restoring ties with Beijing. The ministry in a statement said that Taiwan and Lithuania are important partners that share the values of freedom and democracy. Since the establishment of the
RSS