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Taiwan confirms one new imported COVID-19 case, no new local cases

ROC Central News Agency

02/01/2021 03:58 PM

Taipei, Feb. 1 (CNA) Taiwan on Monday confirmed one new imported case of COVID-19 but reported no locally transmitted cases for the second consecutive day, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).

The new case is a Taiwanese man in his 30s who went to work in Japan in January last year, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, at a press briefing in Taipei.

On Dec. 25, the man went to get tested for COVID-19 at a hospital in Japan after a colleague tested positive. His result came back positive and he was admitted to hospital for treatment, Chen said.

He was discharged a week later after testing negative twice and he took five additional tests between Jan. 2-6, all of which came back negative, Chen said.

Upon returning to Taiwan on Jan. 9, he told airport personnel that he had tested positive previously for COVID-19, according to Chen.

He was then tested twice for the disease, once at the airport and again at a government quarantine center, both of which returned negative, Chen said.

On Jan. 11, he went to a hotel for the rest of his quarantine period, and then checked into another hotel on Jan. 24. He began to display symptoms on Jan. 29 and was confirmed positive for COVID-19 on Monday, Chen said.

As the only person who had contact with the man in Taiwan was adequately protected during their encounter, the person has been asked to follow self-health management protocols instead of having to go into quarantine, according to Chen.

The CECC will conduct further tests to determine whether this is a lingering infection or whether the man was infected again in Taiwan, said CECC spokesperson Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥).

To date, Taiwan has recorded 912 cases of COVID-19, 798 of which have been classified as imported. Of the total, 830 patients have recovered, eight have died and 74 remain in hospital, CECC data shows.

Globally, COVID-19 has infected over 102.8 million people in 193 countries and regions, with more than 2.2 million fatalities, according to CECC statistics as of Monday.

(By Chiang Yi-ching)

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