One new imported case of COVID-19 recorded in Taiwan

ROC Central News Agency

07/16/2020 04:27 PM

Taipei, July 16 (CNA) Taiwan confirmed one new case of COVID-19 on Thursday, which was deemed to be imported, as the patient was a Taiwanese woman who recently returned from overseas, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).

The woman in her 30s had traveled to the Philippines in late January for work purposes and returned to Taiwan on Tuesday, reporting to quarantine officers at the airport that she had lost her sense of smell, CECC spokesman Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said at a press briefing in Taipei.

She was immediately tested for COVID-19, and the results came back positive on Thursday, Chuang said.

The woman said that while in the Philippines, she had received a rapid diagnostic test on June 30 for immunoglobulin G (IgG) and immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies, indicators of a COVID-19 infection, but the results were negative, according to Chuang.

The patient most likely got infected after those tests, he said, explaining that IgM is usually detected around the 4th day of a COVID-19 infection, while IgG shows up on or after the 10th day.

On the woman's flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Tuesday, there was only one passenger in the rows closest to her, and that person is now in home quarantine, Chuang said. Meanwhile, the 11 members of the flight crew have been asked to conduct self-health management, according to the CECC.

The new COVID-19 case on Thursday brought the total number in Taiwan to 452, while the fatalities remained at seven.

Of the 452 cases, 361 have been classified as imported, 55 as locally acquired, and 36 as a cluster infection on board a naval ship, an outbreak that was later confirmed to have originated in Taiwan.

(By Chen Wei-ting and Ko Lin)

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