Two new imported COVID-19 cases reported in Taiwan
ROC Central News Agency
10/07/2020 04:52 PM
Taipei, Oct. 7 (CNA) Two new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Taiwan on Wednesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 523 since the outbreak began at the end of last year, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.
One of the two was a Taiwanese woman in her 20s who returned to Taiwan on Sunday after working in Ireland since October last year, said Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, at a weekly press briefing.
The woman showed no symptoms upon arrival in Taiwan and was put in quarantine as is required for all arrivals, Chen said.
On Monday, however, she developed symptoms and was tested for COVID-19, with the results coming back positive on Wednesday.
The woman has been hospitalized, while two of her family members and 27 people who were seated closest to her on the plane to Taiwan will be required to observe a stricter form of quarantine than the standard 14-day quarantine they were under, Chen said.
Another nine cabin crew members and a taxi driver have been asked to carefully monitor their health, including wearing a mask at all times and taking their temperature twice a day, Chen said.
The other case, an Indian national in his 30s who tested negative within three days before taking off from India, showed no symptoms upon his arrival in Taiwan on Sept. 9, Chen said.
After spending the standard two weeks in quarantine in Taiwan from Sept. 9 to 23, he got a COVID-19 test on Oct. 5 because of work requirements, and the results came back positive Wednesday, Chen said.
The CT value for his PCR test was 34, which the CECC sees as a "weak positive," indicating that it was not contracted recently.
In subsequent tests for antibodies, the test for IgM antibodies was negative, but the one for IgG antibodies was positive, Chen said.
IgM antibodies are known to appear first early in the infection before the antibodies turn into IgG, which can be found starting two weeks after the infection occurs.
Those indicators suggest the man was infected over three weeks ago, before coming to Taiwan, according to CECC spokesman Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥).
Chuang said the negative test he got before leaving could have been a false negative or was done when the disease was still in the incubation period.
Meanwhile, a total of nine people in Taiwan have had contact with the man, including three colleagues at work, and they have been asked to self-isolate, Chen said.
According to current scientific literature, a small amount of the coronavirus can be continuously detected for as long as three months by nucleic acid testing even if an infection is cured, the CECC said in a statement.
To date, Taiwan has recorded 523 cases of COVID-19, with 431 classified as imported. Of the total, 486 have recovered, seven have died, and 30 are in the hospital, according to CECC data. The last time Taiwan recorded a domestic infection was on April 12.
(By William Yen)
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