The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reiterated its COVID-19 testing policy amid concerns that not enough was being done after a Japanese student who last week returned home from Taiwan was confirmed to have the disease.
Taiwan on Tuesday received notice from Japanese authorities of a confirmed case of COVID-19, a female student in her 20s who had returned to Japan from Taiwan and was asymptomatic, the CECC said on Wednesday.
The student traveled to Taiwan in late February and had been studying in southern Taiwan, it said.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
She returned to Japan on Saturday last week and tested positive upon her arrival there, it said.
Japanese authorities yesterday morning told the center that the woman’s cycle threshold was 37.38, which in Taiwan would be considered a “weak positive,” Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), spokesman for the center, told a news conference in Taipei.
Japanese authorities and the center believe that the case was unlikely to have been contagious at the time of testing, Chuang said.
As the student showed no symptoms, it is difficult to know when she was infected, he said.
The center could not rule out the possibility that the student was infected in Taiwan, he said.
The center’s policy is that if an individual is displaying symptoms and suspected of having the virus by a doctor, they can be tested, he said.
For every confirmed case of COVID-19, the center usually tests an additional 160 to 170 people, he said, adding that this level of testing was deemed to be extra cautious.
The center on Wednesday said that it identified 140 people who had been in contact with the Japanese student, including 125 people who had been placed in home isolation and 15 who have been asked to self-manage their health.
The center yesterday revised the number of people ordered into home isolation to 123.
All 123 had been tested for COVID-19 as of last night, it said.
Negative results for 109 of the 123 had been received as of press time last night.
The results for the remainder would be released today, Chuang said.
Meanwhile, the center reported one new imported case.
The patient — the nation’s 447th case — is a man in his 60s who traveled to Guatemala in early April for business, Chuang said.
On June 1, he developed symptoms including coughing, shortness of breath and aching bones, Chuang said.
The man sought medical advice in Guatemala, but twice tested negative for the novel coronavirus, Chuang said.
On Tuesday, the man’s symptom of breathlessness worsened, Chuang said, adding that upon his arrival in Taiwan on Wednesday, he reported his situation to authorities at the airport and was retested.
He was sent to a quarantine facility and did not come into contact with family members or friends in Taiwan, Chuang said.
Ten passengers sat in the two rows in front of and behind the man and they have been ordered to isolate at home, he said.
Additional reporting by Lin Hui-chin
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
MARITIME SECURITY: Of the 52 vessels, 15 were rated a ‘threat’ for various reasons, including the amount of time they spent loitering near subsea cables, the CGA said Taiwan has identified 52 “suspicious” Chinese-owned ships flying flags of convenience that require close monitoring if detected near the nation, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday, as the nation seeks to protect its subsea telecoms cables. The stricter regime comes after a Cameroon-flagged vessel was briefly detained by the CGA earlier this month on suspicion of damaging an international cable northeast of Taiwan. The vessel is owned by a Hong Kong-registered company with a Chinese address given for its only listed director, the CGA said previously. Taiwan fears China could sever its communication links as part of an attempt