Genome sequencing shows latest domestic COVID case linked to cluster
ROC Central News Agency
01/28/2021 09:27 PM
Taipei, Jan. 28 (CNA) Although it is still unknown how the two latest domestic COVID-19 cases in Taiwan became infected, genome sequencing has shown that one of them is linked to the cluster infection at Taoyuan General Hospital, Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) officials said Thursday.
The two cases, which were announced by the CECC on Sunday, are a husband and wife in their 60s. The husband was an inpatient at the hospital from Jan. 8-11 due to health problems unrelated to COVID-19, during which time his wife looked after him.
Over the weekend, both of them tested positive for COVID-19 after displaying symptoms, even though they had no known contact with any of the 13 previously confirmed cases linked to the hospital.
To better clarify whether they are indeed part of the hospital cluster infection, the CECC conducted genome sequencing of the COVID-19 virus taken from the husband, Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞), deputy chief of the CECC's medical response division, said at a press briefing on Thursday.
Results showed that the virus in the husband shares the same mutations -- called D614G and L452R -- with the virus found in seven other COVID-19 cases linked to the hospital, which means they are all part of the same cluster, Lo said.
The reason they can draw this conclusion is because the L452R mutation has only been found in one imported COVID-19 case in Taiwan to date, explained Lo.
That case is case No. 812, a Taiwanese man who returned from the United States in late December and tested positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 3. He is the infection source of the first case in the hospital cluster, a doctor at Taoyuan General Hospital.
Lo said that because the mutation has only been seen in case No. 812 and the domestic cases related to the hospital, the husband is likely part of the same cluster infection.
As the husband and wife are part of the same household and were in the hospital at the same time, the wife was likely infected by the same virus strain, said CECC spokesperson Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥).
The CECC remains unsure how the husband and wife became infected, however. All but one of the 236 people they came into contact with at the hospital have tested negative for COVID-19 antibodies, with one test still being processed, said Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC.
After all results relating to the cluster come out, the CECC will ask experts to determine how the couple became infected, whether it was through direct contact with a COVID-19 case or contaminated surfaces at the hospital, Chen said.
(By Chang Ming-hsuan, Chen Wei-ting and Chiang Yi-ching)
Enditem/AW
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