All of but one of the nine domestic cases of COVID-19 reported in Taiwan on Monday were children under the age of 5 years at the same preschool, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).
The ninth person was the mother of one of the infected children, said Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung (???), who heads the CECC.
The first COVID-19 case at the preschool in Banqiao District, New Taipei, was reported Sunday, when a teacher was confirmed to have contracted the disease.
With the confirmation Monday of another nine cases linked to the school, Chen said, it is likely that there are other infections there, given the close interaction of people at such establishments.
All 42 students and 10 employees at the preschool have been asked to quarantine, and the school will remain closed for two weeks, he said.
Another 109 people, identified through contact tracing, are either in home quarantine or are observing self-health management protocols, Chen said.
Genome sequencing is being conducted to determine whether the preschool cluster infections were caused by the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus, and the results will be known Wednesday, he said.
According to the New Taipei Department of Health, the teacher who has been confirmed as infected had tested positive for COVID-19 one day after her husband was diagnosed with the disease at a local hospital.
Meanwhile, all four cases in a recent EVA Airways cluster -- three pilots and the son of one of them -- have been confirmed as Delta variant infections, according to the CECC.
On Monday, Taiwan also reported seven new imported COVID-19 cases that involved five Taiwanese nationals and two Philippine citizens, the CECC said.
Five of them -- three Taiwanese and two Filipinos -- arrived on Sept. 5 on a merchant vessel that docked in Kaohsiung, while the other two were Taiwanese travelers who returned from Japan and the Gambia on Aug. 23 and Sept. 3, respectively, the CECC said.
The 16 new cases confirmed Monday brought the total in Taiwan to 16,035, of which 14,378 are domestic infections reported since May 15, when the country first recorded more than 100 COVID-19 cases in a single day.
No new deaths from the disease were recorded Monday, the CECC said.
To date, 837 people in Taiwan have died of COVID-19, including 825 since May 15.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel