Nineteen workers at a poultry cooperative in New Taipei City are suspected to have COVID-19, the New Taipei City Government said yesterday.
The suspected cases were on Friday found in a screening of 523 people working at the cooperative or having visited its premises.
The screening at the cooperative — which runs a slaughterhouse and a wholesale market in Taishan District (泰山) — was ordered after a Vietnamese employee tested positive for COVID-19.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Among the 19 suspected cases, two are Taiwanese and 17 were migrant workers, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said.
Some workers, including the suspected cases, are waiting for the results of polymerase chain reaction COVID-19 tests, which produce more accurate results, and 408 people who tested negative were given a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, he said.
Meanwhile, the city yesterday placed 78 migrant workers who had contact with the suspected cases in quarantine, Hou said.
Operations at the poultry cooperative were suspended on Friday after the Vietnamese worker was confirmed to have the virus.
It is to open again today, and every worker and visitor would be required to show a negative COVID-19 test report, the city government said.
Earlier this week, vaccinations of workers at New Taipei City’s two wholesale fruit and vegetable market began after an outbreak of the virus was detected there.
New Taipei City authorities yesterday began screening workers at a meat market in Shulin District (樹林) and are planning to conduct screenings at a fish market in Sanchong District (三重).
As of noon yesterday, the results for 305 workers tested at the meat market came back negative, and 240 of them had received vaccines, Hou said.
Similar screenings have been carried out in Taipei during the week, after the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) and local authorities in Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan on Wednesday agreed on a plan to tackle transmissions among workers at wholesale markets.
In other news, Taoyuan Armed Forces General Hospital yesterday announced that it would suspend inpatient and outpatient services, and stop taking emergency admissions and offering vaccinations amid a growing cluster of COVID-19 cases linked to the hospital.
As of Friday, 30 cases related to the hospital have been confirmed, CECC data showed.
The facility would run at reduced capacity for the next 14 days, the hospital said yesterday.
Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) said that the decision was made after discussions between the city government, the hospital, the Ministry of National Defense’s Medical Affairs Bureau, and the Hospital and Social Welfare Organizations Administration Commission.
The hospital has identified virus hot spots at its premises, and staff who might have had exposure have been admitted to quarantine facilities, regardless of their COVID-19 test results, the Taoyuan City Government said.
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