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Over 100 additional people tested over COVID-19 case

ROC Central News Agency

08/03/2020 07:50 PM

Taipei, Aug. 3 (CNA) Over 100 additional people have been identified and tested after possibly coming into contact with a Belgian national confirmed to be positive for the COVID-19 new coronavirus, the Central Epidemic Command Center said Monday.

As of Monday a total of 437 people, up 127 from Sunday, have been identified as potentially having contact with the man and tested for COVID-19. A total of 328 tests came back negative while the others are still being processed, said CECC spokesman Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥).

Meanwhile, 52 people also tested negative for antibodies, Chuang added.

The Belgian man in his 20s, who entered Taiwan on May 3 and went through the standard two-week quarantine, had two positive PCR tests for the disease last week.

The man was asymptomatic while he worked as a technician in Taiwan, but needed a COVID-19 test to return to his country of origin, according to the CECC.

The CECC has not yet classified the case as a domestically transmitted or imported case, because it learned late Saturday that the Belgian man sought treatment twice in Belgium in March for a loss of sense of taste and smell, potential symptoms of the disease.

However, the man was not tested or suspected of having contracted the coronavirus at the time, Chuang told CNA.

His symptoms, combined with a positive IgG antibody test, indicated he could have contracted COVID-19 a while ago, and has led the CECC to suspect he was first infected in March and the original infection is still in his system.

The case has come under a media spotlight because it came in the wake of two similar cases involving a Japanese student and Thai laborer who both tested positive after returning home from Taiwan.

In addition, if the case is classified as a domestic infection, it would break Taiwan's long stretch of no local infection since April 12.

To date, Taiwan has recorded a total number of 475 COVID-19 infections since the pandemic began late last year, with 383 classified as imported.

Globally, COVID-19 has infected 18,057,352 people in 187 countries and regions, with a total of 689,954 fatalities, according to CECC statistics as of Monday.

(By William Yen)

Enditem/AW