The New Taipei City Government is suspending on-site classes at two schools, after two students tested positive for COVID-19, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said yesterday.
A junior-high school student and an elementary-school student are among 12 domestic COVID-19 cases reported yesterday, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.
Hou said that the schools in Linkou District (林口) would conduct classes remotely for two weeks, but special provisions would be provided for families that cannot accommodate remote learning.
Photo courtesy of the Tainan Department of Health
In such cases, the students would be allowed on school premises under the supervision of assigned teachers, and would be able to join the remote classes, he said.
During the 14-day suspension, the classmates and teachers of the two students who tested positive would be required to quarantine until Friday next week, while others at the schools would be tested twice during that period, he said.
The two COVID-19 cases at the schools are linked to a cluster at a gravel supplier in Kaohsiung, which includes the employees’ relatives, the CECC said.
The cluster extends to contacts of the company’s employees, and has spread to New Taipei City and Tainan, as well as Miaoli and Hsinchu counties, it said.
Five other cases linked to the cluster were also reported yesterday, bringing the total to 34, said Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman.
Among the other new domestic cases, three are connected to a cluster at a factory in New Taipei City’s Shulin District (樹林) operated by Apple supplier Career Technology, bringing the number of infected employees there to 18, he said.
Another case is the wife of a man who returned to Taiwan from China on Jan. 23 and tested positive after his quarantine ended, Chuang said, adding that the couple’s two children also tested positive on Saturday.
The 12th domestic case is a New Taipei City resident who traveled to Kaohsiung over the Lunar New Year holiday and tested positive after developing symptoms, Chuang said, adding that the source of that infection is still under investigation.
In eight of the 12 cases, the person had received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, while two people had received one dose of either the AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and two were children under the age of 10 who had not been vaccinated, the CECC said.
The CECC yesterday also reported 40 imported cases.
In related news, a debate erupted online yesterday after a person said they were fined for failing to use the real-name registration system during a random check.
The penalty was issued as part of a policy announced earlier by Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) in which people who do not scan a QR code or sign their name before entering an establishment face fines of NT$3,000 to NT$15,000.
Real-name registration and wearing masks are required nationwide, but enforcement is up to local governments, Chuang said, adding that many chains of infection have been halted due to the real-name registration system and called on people to follow the policy.
Additional reporting by Lo Chi
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