Taiwan moving 133 mild COVID patients to quarantine centers

台灣將133名冠狀病毒輕症患者轉移到檢疫中心

CECC not yet considering building temporary hospitals as it places emphasis on isolating infectious patients


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Monday (May 17) announced that it will be placing coronavirus patients with mild symptoms in quarantine centers as hospital isolation wards begin to reach their limit.

As new coronavirus cases surge, including nosocomial infections, the CECC on Sunday (May 16) began sending COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms to quarantine centers, said CECC head Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) on Monday. He said that local governments are increasing the number of hotels being prepared for epidemic prevention, and there are plans to add 200 to 300 more quarantine centers.

Chen said that the advantage of using quarantine centers is that it is one person per room, and they are monitored by health care workers. He said that when there is a large influx of infected patients in a hospital, they may not be able to properly separate all of them, leading to nosocomial infection.

He said that if the coronavirus patients stay in their homes, there is the danger that they may infect their relatives. Chen reasoned that quarantine centers can be used as a buffer between the community and family members.

However, critics have said that quarantine centers are not medical institutions and expressed concern that admitting mildly ill coronavirus patients may be illegal. Instead, they recommend setting up temporary hospitals to deal with the surge of patients.

Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy chief of the CECC's medical response unit, responded to this criticism by saying these new facilities will be called "enhanced centralized quarantine stations." They will post medical care staff 24 hours a day to assess the condition of patients by phone or video at any time and will have the capability of treating patients with mild symptoms.

Thus far, 133 people have been placed in such quarantine centers, including 128 newly diagnosed patients and five asymptomatic or mildly ill patients. The five have had symptoms for over 10 days but are believed to be improving and non-infectious or only mildly infectious.

Lo said that there are currently 235 quarantine centers set up to handle coronavirus patients. If the condition of a given patient worsens while in a quarantine center, doctors can transfer them to a hospital. Lo insisted that such quarantine centers have been publicly announced as legally designated isolation areas for infectious diseases and are part of the medical system.

Chen said the CECC is not yet considering building temporary hospitals, as the current emphasis is on isolating infectious patients from non-infectious patients. Regarding doctors and nurses, they are currently being separated from their families by staying in hotels, but if the risk of infection rises, Chen said that different arrangements will be made depending on the situation.