14 new COVID-19 cases in Taoyuan outbreak confirmed
ROC Central News Agency
01/17/2022 07:21 PM
Taipei, Jan. 17 (CNA) Taiwan on Monday confirmed 17 new domestic cases of COVID-19, all but three of which were linked to a wider outbreak of the disease in Taoyuan, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).
Domestic COVID-19 infections
The first case in the recent outbreak, involving a janitor at Taoyuan International Airport, was reported on Jan. 3. Since then, other airport personnel and their contacts have also tested positive, and the disease has spread into the wider community.
Related clusters have emerged in factories, a bank, and most recently, a steakhouse, and over 90 cases have been recorded in all so far, with around a third confirmed to be the Omicron variant.
Tests for variants on the other cases have either not been completed or the viral load was too low to get a result.
Of the 17 new domestic cases reported Monday, 14 were linked to the steakhouse, including an employee, 10 customers who dined there either on Jan. 7 or Jan. 9, and three contacts of customers who previously tested positive.
Speaking at the CECC press briefing, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) urged everyone who ate at the restaurant -- the Tasty steakhouse on Zhongshan Road in Zhongli District -- from Jan. 7 to Jan. 12 to get tested for COVID-19.
The cluster at the steakhouse emerged after the restaurant hosted a year-end celebration for a group of employees from a branch of the Union Bank Of Taiwan on Jan. 7.
Some of them had already contracted COVID-19 unknowingly from a bank customer who was related to an infected airport employee.
Thirteen workers at the bank have tested positive for the disease, but the CECC did not say how many of them were at the dinner on Jan. 7.
Taiwan also reported three other people with COVID-19 on Monday who were not found to be linked to the larger outbreak in Taoyuan, according to the CECC.
One of the three was the boyfriend of a nurse at Renai Branch of Taipei City Hospital. The nurse tested positive for COVID-19 last week and the CECC has determined she was infected by a COVID-19 patient she had been taking care of.
Another of the cases was a man who went to a Taoyuan hospital after a car accident and tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday. The CECC is still investigating how he became infected.
The last of the three was a nurse who works at Far Eastern Memorial Hospital. She was confirmed with COVID-19 after beginning to have symptoms of the disease.
Her source of infection is yet unknown, CECC official Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) said, as none of her colleagues, patients, or relatives have tested positive so far.
She had not been to places frequented by any of the domestic COVID-19 cases recorded in the past few weeks, and more work is needed to determine how she contracted the disease, Lo said.
Of the 17 domestic cases recorded Monday, five were classified as breakthrough infections and the vaccination status of five others was still under investigation.
The remaining seven included four who had not received any COVID-19 vaccines, two who received only one vaccine jab, and one person who received her second vaccine dose less than two weeks before being infected.
Also in Taoyuan, a Compal Electronics plant in the city's Pingzhen District where three employees recently tested positive for COVID-19 was temporarily shut down.
Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) said at a separate press briefing on Monday that the plant would be closed for seven days and all of its employees would be tested for COVID-19.
Imported COVID-19 cases
In addition to the domestic cases, Taiwan also reported 48 imported cases on Monday. Of these cases, 37 tested positive upon arrival in Taiwan on Sunday, and the other 11 were travelers who tested positive during quarantine, according to the CECC.
The CECC did not release any information regarding the vaccination status of the imported cases.
To date, Taiwan has confirmed 17,885 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began in early 2020, of which 14,709 were domestically transmitted infections.
With no deaths reported Monday, the number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths in the country remained at 851.
Also on Monday, the CECC said it was making a change to the triaging of travelers who arrive in Taiwan on long-haul flights and test positive for COVID-19 at the airport.
Under the policy, which began Saturday, COVID-19-positive travelers aged 20-39 who have mild symptoms or are asymptomatic are sent to a government-run center or placed in a quarantine hotel, instead of being admitted to a medical facility, to reduce the burden of local hospitals.
The policy will now target those aged 20-49 who meet the same conditions regarding symptoms to further free up medical resources, Lo said.
(By Chiang Yi-ching)
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