Taiwan's ship COVID cluster infection grows to 5

台灣船舶冠狀病毒群聚感染新增5例

2 Burmese, 1 Chinese sailor latest ship crew members to test positive for COVID


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Tuesday (April 27) announced five imported coronavirus cases and one local case.

During a press conference on Tuesday, CDC Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) announced five imported and one local case of COVID-19. The latest imported cases entered Taiwan from Canada and the Philippines.

Chou said that case No. 1,106 is a Taiwanese woman in her 70s who went to Canada to visit relatives on March 1 along with case No. 1,068. She returned to Tawain on April 8, when she went directly to her residence to undergo quarantine.

On April 13, she was listed as a contact of case No. 1,068, a Taiwanese man in his 70s, and was told to undergo home isolation. A coronavirus test she took that day came back negative, and she was asymptomatic during her home isolation period.

As her home isolation was set to end, the health department arranged for her to undergo a coronavirus test on April 25.

On April 27, she tested positive for COVID-19, with a Ct value of 29. Two contacts have been listed in her case, including one who has been told to enter home isolation, while the other has been asked to start self-health monitoring.

According to Chou, case No. 1,107 and case No. 1,110 are Burmese men in their 30s and 20s, while case No. 1,109 is a Chinese man in his 40s. All three were on the same ship as case Nos. 1,103 and 1,104, who were diagnosed with the virus on Monday (April 26).

Case No. 1,107 began to develop a fever and cough on April 24 and was sent to a hospital to be tested for the coronavirus on April 25. Because case Nos. 1,109 and 1,110 were listed as contacts of case Nos. 1,103 and 1,104, they underwent coronavirus tests as well that day.

On April 27, all three were diagnosed with COVID-19, with case No. 1,107 having a Ct value of 26, case No. 1,109 receiving a Ct value of 20, and case No. 1,110 registering a Ct value of 28.

The addition of the three new cases brings the size of the ship cluster infection to five people. The health department has identified 64 people with the cluster, including 14 crew members of the same ship, all of whom have received negative results on nucleic acid tests and have left the country.

Of the remaining 50 contacts, three have entered home isolation, while 47 have started self-health monitoring.

Chou stated that case No. 1,108 is a Filipino migrant worker in her 20s who came to Taiwan for work on April 25. Although she was asymptomatic when she arrived in Taiwan, she proactively told quarantine officers that she had previously been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the Philippines in late March.

Quarantine staff then administered a coronavirus test on the woman, and the result came back positive for COVID-19 on April 27, with a Ct value of 27. The health department has identified three passengers who sat in the two rows directly in front and behind her as contacts and has told them to undergo home isolation.