The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported two new imported cases of COVID-19, while it refused to confirm from which companies the government had purchased vaccines.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is also CECC spokesman, said that the two new cases were migrant workers who had not reported any symptoms since arriving in Taiwan.
One is a Filipina in her 30s who arrived on Nov. 30 and provided a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test conducted within three days of boarding her flight.
Photo: Wang Shan-yen, Taipei Times
The woman was tested again on Sunday at the end of her centralized quarantine period and the result returned positive yesterday, he said.
The other case is an Indonesian in his 30s who also arrived on Nov. 30 and provided a negative PCR test result.
He also tested negative in a special extended testing program on Dec. 4.
However, a test taken on Sunday at the end of his quarantine period returned positive yesterday, Chuang said.
That brought the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Taiwan to 742, 650 of which were imported, he said.
In related news, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) yesterday reported that Taiwan had, via the COVAX allocation mechanism, acquired the vaccine produced by Pfizer-BioNTech — which was shown to have 95 percent efficacy in clinical trials — and that EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) was installing special freezers on its planes to transport the vaccine.
Asked about the report, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, in Chiayi yesterday said that EVA Airways was preparing the freezers, but as the situation remains uncertain, the CECC would not be making an official announcement about vaccines in the next one to two weeks.
The CECC had not requested that EVA Airways install the freezer equipment in its planes, so it is likely that the vaccine manufacturer asked the airline to make the preparations, Chen said.
Asked about the manufacturer and amount of vaccine purchased, Chen said that the CECC would provide the information when the situation is certain and that Taiwan might be able to obtain a small amount of vaccine from COVAX which would be given to people most at risk.
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