Thu, Jul 01, 2021 page1

• Fifty-five new cases as third Moderna batch arrives

  • By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
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  The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 55 locally transmitted COVID-19 infections and five deaths, as the nation took delivery of a third shipment of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine that it had purchased from the US drugmaker.

  Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the 55 cases — 30 males and 25 females — ranged in age from younger than five to older than 80 and began having symptoms between June 20 and Tuesday.

  Twenty-seven tested positive during or upon completing home isolation, he said.

  

  Workers at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday move refrigerated cases of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine after unloading them.

  Photo: Tony Yao, Taipei Times

  The infection sources of 31 cases have been identified, while 22 cases are under investigation and two are unclear, Chen said.

  New Taipei City reported 23 cases, followed by Taipei with 22, Taoyuan with five, Miaoli County and Kaohsiung two each, and Pingtung County one, he said.

  The deaths were three men and two women aged 60 to 80 with underlying health conditions, CECC data showed.

  Another case was linked to the cluster infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in Pingtung County, bringing the total to 15 — two imported cases and 13 locally transmitted cases, Chen said.

  The case — a work colleague of a previous case — had tested negative during home isolation before testing positive in the latest test, Chen said.

  The additional case does not necessarily mean that the cluster has expanded, as the person was under isolation when contagious, he said.

  As of Tuesday, 6,041 residents had received a COVID-19 test at five community screening stations set up in Pingtung County’s Fangshan (枋山) and Fangliao (枋寮) townships.

  Chen said that 5,921 of them tested negative in their polymerase chain reaction tests, while 120 people are awaiting test results.

  The test result for a previously reported case returned positive, he added.

  Due to a cluster infection of five at a residential building in Kaohsiung’s Fongshan District (鳳山), the Kaohsiung City Government isolated 187 people at quarantine hotels or centralized quarantine facilities, Chen said.

  The five were from two families, living on the third and seventh floors of the building, he said.

  As they did not have direct contact with each other, the local government said that there might be environmental contamination in the building’s public spaces, which is why the residents were evacuated, he said.

  Contact tracing and testing were promptly conducted, he said, adding that the building’s 146 residents, 50 of their close contacts at work and 35 people at nearby stores all tested negative.

  Environmental surface testing at 35 places was also conducted, which all returned negative, he said.

  Meanwhile, a third Moderna vaccine shipment arrived yesterday afternoon on an EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) cargo flight that left Amsterdam late on Tuesday.

  The doses were transported to a designated cold storage logistics center for an inspection and sealing operations, the CECC said.

  The 410,000 doses is part of Taiwan’s order of 5.05 million Moderna doses. The first batch of 150,000 doses arrived in Taiwan on May 28, and a second shipment of 240,000 doses arrived on June 18.

  There was also an additional 2.5 million doses donated by the US, which arrived on June 20.

  As of Tuesday, 2,002,677 doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in Taiwan, and the vaccination coverage rate is 8.35 percent, CECC data showed.

  Additional reporting by CNA
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