Fourth Taoyuan school suspends classes due to new COVID-19 cases

ROC Central News Agency

03/01/2022 05:48 PM

Taipei, March 1 (CNA) A fourth school in Taoyuan has suspended onsite classes, after three students there tested positive for COVID-19, the city government and the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said Tuesday.

New domestic cases

The three students at Shinjie Elementary School in Taoyuan's Zhongli District were among the four new domestic COVID-19 cases reported Tuesday, CECC spokesperson Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said at a press briefing.

The infections are linked to a cluster involving three other schools in the city -- Midi Preschool, Guanyin Elementary School, and Fulin Elementary School -- all located in Guanyin District, Chuang said.

Onsite classes at the four schools have been suspended, and they will hold classes virtually until March 11, the Taoyuan City government said.

According to the CECC, the first cases in the cluster were a couple and their son, who attends Midi Preschool. Since those three infections were reported last Saturday, the number of cases in the cluster has grown to 24, the CECC said, adding that the origin of the cases remains unknown.

The figures do not include imported cases reclassified as domestic ones, nor retroactively removed cases. As of March 1, Taiwan recorded 836 domestic and 2,665 imported COVID-19 cases in 2022.

The other domestic case reported Tuesday was a Taipei resident, whose infection is connected to a cluster of 48 cases, Chuang said.

That cluster is linked mainly to members of a religious group, who dined together at a Taipei restaurant on Feb. 13, he said, adding that the source of the cluster is also unknown.

Among the four new domestic cases reported Tuesday, three were elementary school students who were unvaccinated, while the patient in Taipei had received three doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, according to the CECC.

Omicron infections

Currently, the CECC said, it is monitoring three cluster infections and three individual cases of unknown origin.

Genome sequencing on blood samples from patients in two of the clusters and two individual cases showed that they were infected with three different versions of the Omicron variant, according to CECC data.

The two individuals are nurses who work at quarantine hotels in Taipei and New Taipei, where arriving travelers with asymptomatic or mild COVID-19 infections are housed, the data indicated.

The genome sequence in those two cases did not match that of any domestic infections confirmed so far in Taiwan, according to the CECC.

1. More doses of the Moderna vaccine have been administered in Taiwan than the government has officially received because recipients of the Moderna booster shot are given half the standard dose of the first and second jab. 2. Information about the booster dose and additional dose can be found at https://t.ly/4ZuW

In addition to the four domestic cases, Taiwan also reported 40 imported cases on Tuesday, 25 of them travelers who tested positive on arrival in the country. The CECC did not release any information regarding the vaccination status of the imported cases.

To date, Taiwan has confirmed 20,533 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began in early 2020, including 15,439 domestically transmitted infections.

With no deaths reported Tuesday, the number of confirmed COVID-19 fatalities in the country remained at 853.

(By Chiang Yi-ching)

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