Taiwan reports one new imported case of COVID-19
ROC Central News Agency
10/08/2020 05:35 PM
Taipei, Oct. 8 (CNA) Taiwan confirmed one new case of COVID-19 on Thursday, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 524 since the pandemic began, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).
The latest case is a man in his 50s from the Philippines who arrived in Taiwan to begin a new job as a seaman on Sept. 15, CECC spokesman Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said at a press conference.
The man tested negative within three days before his flight to Taiwan and again upon arrival, Chuang said, adding that he did not report any symptoms to health workers at the airport.
After spending the mandatory two weeks in quarantine from Sept. 15-29, he was taken by charter bus to a hotel in preparation for beginning his new job.
On Oct. 5, Chuang said, the man was tested again for COVID-19 because of work requirements. The results showed a CT value of 34, which the CECC considers a "weak positive," he added.
Because of the ambiguous results, the man was tested again on Oct. 6 and the results came back positive on Thursday, Chuang said.
The man has been moved into hospital quarantine and is currently asymptomatic, he added.
The CECC said the 16 passengers who took the charter bus with the man have been instructed to quarantine for 14 days, while the driver, who was deemed sufficiently protected, has been asked to closely monitor his health.
Despite the relatively long period of time since the man's arrival in Taiwan, his case has been classified as imported.
According to Chuang, the man tested positive for both IgM and IgG antibodies, which are sometimes used to differentiate between active and past infections.
IgM antibodies are known to appear early in the infection before they turn into IgG, which can be found starting two weeks after the infection occurs.
Chuang offered two possible explanations for the results, saying that the virus may have been in the incubation period when the man arrived in Taiwan, or that he may have had an active infection but returned "false negative" test results.
The deep-throat saliva tests used in airport COVID-19 screening in Taiwan can sometimes fail to detect older infections, which would likely still show up on throat or nasal swab polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, Chuang said.
However, positive PCR results in these cases do not necessarily mean that the patient is still contagious, he said.
To date, Taiwan has reported 524 cases of COVID-19, with 432 classified as imported. Of the total, 487 have recovered, seven have died and 30 are in hospital, according to CECC data. Taiwan reported its last domestic infection on April 12.
(By Chen Wei-ting and Matthew Mazzetta)
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