CECC to further expand testing to control Taoyuan COVID cluster
ROC Central News Agency
02/01/2021 05:53 PM
Taipei, Feb. 1 (CNA) The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) will expand the scope of COVID-19 testing later this week to cover all people working at Taoyuan General Hospital -- the epicenter of a cluster infection -- to make sure no coronavirus patient is missed.
Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, said Monday that since the cluster infection broke out at the hospital on Jan. 12, 4,337 people have undergone or are still undergoing 14-day quarantines.
Among them, 1,820 have tested negative for COVID-19 as testing continues.
The 4,337 individuals include contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases, hospital employees, patients who were discharged from the hospital last month, and their close contacts.
They are all being tested for COVID-19 before their quarantine ends and will be required to follow self-health management protocols for the seven days after being cleared, according to the CECC.
Beyond those individuals, CECC advisor Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) said Monday that all other hospital employees and contract workers at the hospital will be required to get COVID-19 PCR and antibody tests starting Feb. 3 to make sure no positive COVID-19 cases are slipping through the cracks.
A PCR test is performed to detect the presence of the virus if one is infected at the time of the test. An antibody test, meanwhile, is a test to check if one has had the coronavirus in the past.
Chang said the tests will help determine if there are people who work in the hospital who have contracted COVID-19 but did not test positive when given a PCR test.
The CECC did not give an estimate of how many additional people it expects to test under the new policy.
To date, 19 people linked to the hospital have been confirmed with COVID-19 -- two doctors, four nurses, one migrant caregiver, six relatives of two of the nurses, two hospital patients, three relatives of the two patients, and a contact of one of the patients.
(By Cheng Wei-ting, Chang Hsiung-feng and Joseph Yeh)
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