The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday announced 15 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Taiwan to 298.
Fourteen of the new cases — nine men and five women — are imported cases who had returned to Taiwan between March 14 and Friday, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center.
Among them are three clusters of cases, including a married couple who visited Indonesia form March 10 to March 14, developed symptoms on Sunday last week and sought medical help on Thursday, he said.
Photo: Tsai Wen-chu, Taipei Times
The second clustered case is a man who visited Morocco from March 10 to Sunday last week in a tour group, in which another traveler tested positive last week, Chen said.
The third clustered case is also a married couple. The husband visited Spain and Portugal in a tour group from March 7 to March 16, but his wife had not traveled abroad recently.
They both tested positive for COVID-19, Chen said.
The wife, who is yesterday’s sole domestic case, could have been infected by her husband, the CECC said.
One of the imported cases, the nation’s 284th, is a man who worked in the Philippines and returned to Taiwan on March 20 on the same commercial flight — EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) Flight BR282 — with another confirmed case, the nation’s 277th, which was confirmed on Saturday, Chen said.
People who were on the flight should immediately contact local health departments if they develop COVID-19 symptoms, the CECC said.
Although the two cases had greeted each other at the airport in the Philippines before boarding the flight, the center considers the likelihood of them contracting the coronavirus in the Philippines to be higher, Chen said.
Seven of the new cases had been under home quarantine, four were detected at the airport upon arrival and four sought medical treatment on their own, he said.
Following the confirmation of two domestic cases with unclear sources of infection on Saturday, the center has identified 449 people who have had come into contact with case No. 268, Chen said, adding that most of them would need to perform self-health management and would not be tested.
The person visited New Taipei City’s Jinshan Old Street (金山老街) and Miao Kou thick pork soup (廟口肉羹) between 5:20pm and 6:54pm on Feb. 29, and visited Wulai Old Street (烏來老街) and the food stalls there from 2:30pm to 4:48pm on March 15, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said.
However, the center could not identify other people who visited the venues while the person was there, he said.
The other domestic case announced on Saturday, the nation’s 269th, was found to have come into contact with an imported case (No. 277) on March 20, Chen said.
Meanwhile, the nation’s 156th case, reported on Sunday last week, a nurse working at a long-term care facility, was yesterday discharged from hospital, making it the shortest period of hospitalization for a COVID-19 patient in Taiwan, he said.
Chen also said that students at a senior-high school in northern Taiwan can return to school today after 74 people who had come into contact with a cluster of cases at the school tested negative for COVID-19.
The nation’s 59th case, a student at the school, had tested positive after returning from a trip to Greece, causing classes to be suspended for two weeks.
Asked if the CECC suggests any enhanced disease prevention measures, Chen said people should keep practicing social distancing, such as when waiting in lines, adding that the center is discussing whether to draft stricter regulations.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS