60-year-old man dies before test finds him COVID-positive (update)
ROC Central News Agency
05/24/2021 07:39 PM
Taipei, May 24 (CNA) The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Monday confirmed that six people died of COVID-19 over the last few days, including a man in his 60s whose death was reported before a test for COVID-19 was conducted on him and the result came back positive.
The man had visited Wanhua District in Taipei, the epicenter of the recent surge in domestically transmitted coronavirus cases, CECC chief and Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said at a press briefing.
The CECC could not find any medical records for the man, who died on May 22. His death led health authorities to give him a COVID-19 test, which came back positive on May 23, Chen said.
Another of the deaths was that of a woman in her 70s who had a history of chronic disease, including gastric cancer. She received a COVID-19 test on May 14, with the results returning positive on May 17, and she died on May 19, according to the CECC.
The other cases involved a woman and three men, all in their 60s or 70s.
The woman in her 60s had diabetes and chronic hepatitis and she began having muscle pain, shortness of breath and pneumonia symptoms on May 21, and sought a test for the coronavirus that same day.
She died on May 22, one day before her test result came back positive, Chen said.
Among the three men who died of COVID-19, one was in his 70s and had tonsil cancer. He came down with a fever on May 17, and sought treatment and got tested. The result came back positive on May 20 and he passed away on May 22.
One of the other men, in his 60s, also had chronic high blood pressure and cirrhosis. He developed a fever on May 17, tested positive for COVID-19 on May 20, and died on May 22.
The third man, also in his 60s, developed a cough on May 15 and sought a test the next day. His test result came back positive on May 20 and he died two days later.
CECC spokesperson Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said all six of the people died in the hospital, except for the one who had a history of activity in Wanhua and died before he was tested.
The new death cases bring the number of people who have succumbed to COVID-19 in Taiwan to 29 since the pandemic began, with 17 of the fatalities being reported since May 18, according to CECC data.
Also on Monday, the CECC published statistics indicating that in the recent wave of domestic infections, which began on April 15, there have been 3,225 people who have contracted the virus, and the conditions of 335 of them, or 10.3 percent, were serious.
CECC official Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) said elderly people with chronic diseases are at high risk, citing data showing that 234 of 1,228 COVID-19 patients aged 60 or older, or 19.1 percent, were in serious condition.
As of Monday there were 84 COVID-19 patients on ventilators, up 18 from the previous day.
(By Chen Chieh-ling, Chiang Hui-chun, Wang Shu-fen and Elizabeth Hsu)
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