Physicians have praised the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), saying that its careful screening led to the detection of the first death from COVID-19 in Taiwan.
The center on Sunday announced that the nation’s 19th confirmed case and the first death was a 61-year-old Taiwanese who tested positive for COVID-19 after he had been hospitalized for suspected serious flu complications, including pneumonia.
The man began coughing on Jan. 27 and was hospitalized with difficulty breathing on Feb. 3, but he was not reported as a suspected case at the time because he had not traveled overseas.
Photo: CNA
He died of pneumonia and sepsis on Saturday.
The test for COVID-19 was reported as positive on Saturday. The center had expanded its screening measures on Wednesday to include tracing cases of serious flu complications with pneumonia that had tested negative for flu since Jan. 31.
Among 113 such cases, the man’s was the only one to test positive for COVID-19.
The man’s 51-year-old brother also tested positive for COVID-19, becoming the nation’s 20th confirmed case. He has not experienced symptoms.
“God bless Taiwan,” Tsai Hsien-lung (蔡賢龍), an attending physician at Cheng Hsin General Hospital’s department of emergency medicine, wrote on Facebook on Sunday.
“Although shocked [at the result], I am moved by how the 19th case was found by tracing and exhaustive screening,” Tsai wrote.
“The 20th case was also found through the careful procedure,” he wrote.
“Thank God someone launched the screening procedure and tested the additional cases,” he wrote.
Tan Che-kim (陳志金), a physician at Chi Mei Foundation Medical Center, wrote on Facebook that the 19th case was found because the center took the initiative to expand its screening measures, which Tan said was a job well done.
As there is the possibility of local transmission, people should take protective measures, such as avoiding unnecessary visits to crowded places and hospitals, washing their hands frequently and paying attention to the center’s advice on when to wear a mask, the CECC said.
Former Democratic Progressive Party legislator Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀), an obstetrician and gynecologist, praised the center on Facebook.
“It is really impressive how the CECC traced cases and tested for COVID-19 in scenarios that did not match the criteria for mandatory report at the time of diagnosis,” Lin wrote. “The infected patients and people who had close contact with them would not have been found if it had not acted.”
“I truly believe the performance of Taiwan’s CECC so far must be the best in the world,” she wrote.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said that the CECC noticed that Singapore and the US had expanded their testing to include more suspected cases, and one confirmed death in Japan did not have travel or exposure history.
Based on these observations, the CECC traced and screened the 113 cases, Chuang said.
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant