The Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday reported the first death in Taiwan from the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, as well as 40 imported and five locally transmitted cases.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said the deceased is a Taiwanese in her 80s, who was listed as a contact of a cluster infection at the Golden Voice Social Club in Taoyuan.
The woman was a dialysis patient who had taken a taxi driven by a member of the social club, Chen said.
Photo courtesy of the Taoyuan Department of Public Health via CNA
The woman had been isolating in hospital since Jan. 10 and was tested before ending her isolation on Jan. 19. When the results came back positive, she continued to be isolated for treatment, but died on Feb. 4.
Although her record did not mention COVID-19 as the cause of death, the CECC’s specialists decided to include her as a COVID-19-asociated death, as she died within 60 days of being diagnosed with COVID-19, Chen said.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said the woman tested positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 18, with a cycle threshold (Ct) value of 18.8, and was diagnosed with pneumonia in the right lung.
She received treatment for COVID-19, including Remdesivir injections, steroids and antibiotics, and was transferred to an intensive care unit for three days, but was not put on a ventilator, Lo said.
She had a Ct value of 33 for two consecutive days earlier this month and met the isolation release requirement, Lo said.
However, she suffered from aspiration pneumonia and sepsis on the day she was released, and the diagnosis listed aspiration pneumonia as the main cause of death, he said, adding that she also had coronary artery disease, chronic diabetes and was on dialysis.
The five local cases included two people who tested positive after isolation, Chen said, adding that they were linked to a cluster at an Askey Computer Corp (亞旭) factory in Taoyuan’s Farglory Free Trade Zone (遠雄自由貿易港區).
Two other cases were a worker at a factory in New Taipei City operated by Career Technology Co (嘉聯益), where a cluster of infections were reported, and a family member of the worker, he said, adding that colleagues working on the same floor have been placed under isolation, while other workers can return to work.
The fifth case is an airport police officer at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, who oversees inbound travelers who have tested positive for COVID-19 from the airport to their transport, Chen said.
The man tested negative twice in polymerase chain reaction tests and five times in rapid tests between Jan. 21 and Friday last week, he said.
When he was on duty on Saturday last week, there were seven inbound passengers on a flight who tested positive upon arrival, but four of them tested negative in the second test, and the other three had high Ct values, indicating that they were hardly contagious, he said.
A flight earlier had six passengers who tested positive, including four who tested negative in the second test, and only one of the two other passengers had a Ct value of 21, which could be contagious, but the person did not have direct contact with the police, so an investigation is ongoing to clarify the possible source of infection, he said.
The imported cases were 13 people who tested positive upon arrival at the airport and 27 who tested positive during or upon ending quarantine, Chen said.
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