3-year-old boy among Taiwan's 8 new imported COVID-19 cases

ROC Central News Agency

12/12/2020 04:37 PM

Taipei, Dec. 12 (CNA) Taiwan recorded its youngest COVID-19 patient on Saturday, when a 3-year-old was confirmed as one of eight new imported cases, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).

The boy and his mother both tested positive, along with six other people who recently arrived in Taiwan, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 733 since the pandemic broke out at the end of last year, the CECC said.

The 3-year-old boy is one of only three COVID-19 cases of children under the age of five in Taiwan, and he is the youngest, the CECC said, adding that children are categorized as a low-risk group.

According to the CECC, the child and his mother, both Taiwanese, returned home on Dec. 6 from the United States, where they live.

The mother, in her 30s, began having symptoms such as sneezing, an itchy throat and an abnormal sense of smell on Dec. 9, while her son developed a fever on Dec. 11, the CECC said.

They were tested for COVID-19 and were confirmed as positive on Saturday, but it was unclear how they became infected, Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞), deputy chief of the CECC's medical response division, said at a press conference.

Among the other six new imported cases, three are Indonesian migrant workers, in their 20s and 30s, who presented negative COVID-19 test reports on arrival in Taiwan on Nov. 27, the CECC said.

When they were tested on Dec. 10 before the end of their mandatory 14-day quarantine period, however, the results came back positive, Lo said, adding that the three women were asymptomatic.

Another Indonesian, a businesswoman in her 20s, was also one of the eight new imported cases, the CECC said.

On arrival in Taiwan on Nov. 25, she presented a negative COVID-19 test report, but took another test on Dec. 10 after her quarantine ended, and that one was positive, the CECC said, adding that she too was asymptomatic.

The other two new cases are Taiwanese women, who returned home from the United Kingdom and the United States on Nov. 27 and Dec. 2, respectively, the CECC said.

One of them, in her 40s, developed symptoms of fatigue, sore muscles, dizziness and a fever on Dec. 4 while in quarantine, and her COVID-19 test was confirmed Saturday as positive.

In a similar case, the other Taiwanese woman reported symptoms of nasal congestion and an abnormal sense of smell on Dec. 8, six days after she arrived in Taiwan, and was confirmed Saturday to have contracted the virus, the CECC said.

To date, Taiwan has recorded 733 cases of COVID-19, 641 of which have been classified as imported. Of the total, 601 patients have recovered, seven have died, and 125 are currently hospitalized, according to CECC statistics as of Saturday.

(By Chang Ming-hsuan and Frances Huang)

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