Four people have been identified as being part of a COVID-19 cluster infection at a quarantine hotel in Taoyuan, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said Thursday.
The four are all Taiwanese nationals who returned to the country at different times over the past three weeks from China, Vietnam, and Hong Kong, CECC official Lo Yi-chun (???) said at a daily COVID-19 press briefing.
Although the individuals checked into the hotel at different times, their stays overlapped and they were assigned to neighboring rooms on the sixth floor of the hotel, Lo said, adding that genome sequencing results show they were all infected with the same Delta strain of the COVID-19 virus, indicating one traveler infected the other three.
The CECC identified the cluster after investigating how one of the four cases, a Taiwanese man who returned from China on Nov. 20, became infected with the disease.
The man tested negative for COVID-19 on entry to Taiwan as well as prior to the end of quarantine, but another test he took seven days after leaving the hotel came back positive.
His test results indicate that he was infected fairly recently, which prompted the CECC to test his contacts in Taiwan -- who were all negative -- and look into the hotel.
A possible source of the cluster infection could be another one of the four cases, who returned to Taiwan from Vietnam on Dec. 3, Lo said.
He was the earliest of the four to show symptoms of COVID-19 and also the first to be confirmed as having contracted the disease, after a test he took on returning to Taiwan came back positive, and he only stayed at the hotel for two nights before being admitted to hospital, Lo said.
The genome sequence of the virus the four were infected with is a perfect match with several imported cases of COVID-19 from Vietnam Taiwan previously identified, which is another reason why the CECC thinks the man could be the source of the cluster, Lo said.
The CECC plans to review surveillance footage from the hotel in an effort to determine how the virus might have spread, Lo said.
Currently, there is no evidence any of the four patients violated quarantine rules while at the hotel, and since 37 employees have all tested negative, it seems more likely that environmental contamination was the cause, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (???) said.
In addition to the cases where genome sequencing results are available, the CECC has identified four other current or former guests at the hotel who have tested positive for COVID-19, though tests results are not yet available to confirm whether they are linked to the cluster.
Two of these four cases also stayed on the sixth floor of the hotel, while the other two were on the fifth and eighth floor.
Lo said it is likely that the patient who stayed on the eighth floor is not part of the cluster, as she tested positive for the disease in Cambodia in September, adding that of the four COVID-19 tests she has taken in Taiwan, only one returned a positive result.
The eight cases identified at the hotel so far have all been classified as imported, though their classification will be changed if information becomes available indicating they were infected in Taiwan, Lo said.
The hotel was closed down on Thursday, with all current guests relocated to government quarantine centers. The CECC is in the process of testing them as well as former guests for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, the CECC said Thursday that there were no new updates regarding a different quarantine hotel under investigation in Taipei.
Two people tested positive for COVID-19 after staying in adjacent rooms at the hotel, but genome sequencing has not yet been completed to determine whether they are linked, Chen said.
No employees or other guests at the hotel have tested positive so far, Chen said.
Since Taiwan reported a cluster infection involving China Airlines and the Novotel airport hotel in May, local governments have conducted more inspections of quarantine hotels, but the CECC plans to launch a comprehensive review in light of the incident in Taoyuan, Chen said.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel