Seventy new cases of COVID-19 were yesterday reported by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC): 58 imported and 12 local, with nine of the local cases linked to an airport cluster and three to a new Taipei hospital cluster.
As of noon yesterday, 39 local cases had been linked to the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport cluster.
Of the nine new airport cluster cases, two were family members of two previously infected airport janitors, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center.
Photo: CNA
The family members tested positive in home isolation, he said.
Also added to the airport cluster were three family members and four colleagues of previously infected cases.
Chen said that one family member — case No. 17,573 — is the mother of a child who contracted COVID-19 at the same after-school childcare center as another infected child, whose father (case No. 17,473) handles baggage carts at the airport and whose mother (case No. 17,472) is a personal care aide.
Photo: CNA
The two other family members are people who live three previously reported cases, including a man (case No. 17,471) who receives care from the female personal care aide (case No. 17,472), he said.
Five people in the family have tested positive, including two young children under the age of five, their parents and their uncle (case No. 17,471), he added.
Chen said that the four colleagues are employed at the same electronics manufacturing company as a previously reported case (case No. 17,507), who is a close friend of the personal care aide (case No. 17,472).
As the company has five cases of COVID-19, the Taoyuan City Government asked it to suspend operations yesterday, while the infected colleagues’ 280 workplace contacts were admitted to a centralized quarantine facility, he said.
On Monday evening, a new cluster of infections was reported at a hospital in Taipei, CECC specialist advisory panel convener Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) said.
The first confirmed case in the cluster — case No. 17,570 — is a nurse in the hospital’s ward dedicated to caring for COVID-19 patients, Chang said.
Ward personnel are tested regularly for the virus, Chang said, adding that the nurse had tested negative on Friday, but had a sore throat on Sunday and a fever on Monday.
She tested positive on Monday and all ward personnel were immediately tested, Chang said.
Another nurse — case No. 17,571 — tested positive, but she is asymptomatic, Chang said, adding that the ward personnel were placed in isolation.
The cycle threshold values of the two nurses were relatively low — 13 and 15 — indicating higher viral loads, he said.
A close friend of case No. 17,570 had a sore throat on Monday and also tested positive later that day, he said.
Yesterday, Taipei Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) said that the two nurses work at Taipei City Hospital’s Zhongxing branch, and the close contact of case No. 17,570 is her boyfriend.
Yesterday, Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) said that all elementary schools in the city would start winter break one week early, with the last day of classes being on Friday.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest foundry service provider, yesterday said that global semiconductor revenue is projected to hit US$1.5 trillion in 2030, after the figure exceeds US$1 trillion this year, as artificial intelligence (AI) demand boosts consumption of token and compute power. “We are still at the beginning of the AI revolution, but we already see a significant impact across the whole semiconductor ecosystem,” TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “It is fair to say that in the past decade, smartphones and other mobile devices were
US-CHINA SUMMIT: MOFA welcomed US reassurance of no change in its Taiwan policy; Trump said he did not comment when Xi talked of opposing independence US President Donald Trump yesterday said he has not made a decision on whether to move forward with a major arms package for Taiwan after hearing concerns about it from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Trump’s comments on Taiwan came as he flew back to Washington after wrapping up critical talks in which both leaders said important progress was made in stabilizing US-China relations even as deep differences persist between the world’s two biggest powers on Iran and Taiwan. “I will make a determination,” Trump said, adding: “I’ll be making decisions. But, you know, I think the last thing we need right
TAIWAN ISSUE: US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on the first day of meetings that ‘it wouldn’t be a US-China summit without the Taiwan issue coming up’ There were no surprises on the first day of the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday, as the government reiterated that cross-strait stability is crucial to the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the world. As the two presidents met for a highly anticipated summit yesterday, Chinese state media reported that Xi warned Trump that missteps regarding Taiwan could push their two countries into “conflict.” Trump arrived in China with accolades for his host, calling Xi a “great leader” and “friend,” and extending an invitation to visit the White House
RSS