The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Friday said it was still looking into the sources of domestically-transmitted COVID-19 infections at a technology plant in New Taipei's Shulin District and in Keelung City, northern Taiwan.
Cases in New Taipei factory
Taiwan reported 14 new domestic cases that day, of which nine were linked to a Vietnamese factory worker in Shulin, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (???) said at a press briefing.
Chen, who also heads the CECC, said the woman in her 20s developed a fever on Wednesday and a COVID-19 test which she received at a hospital the following day came back positive on Friday.
A total of 208 employees at the Shulin factory who were identified as contacts of the Vietnamese woman were also tested for the disease on Thursday, and nine were confirmed as having COVID-19 on Friday, he said.
According to the CECC, authorities are still looking into the possible sources of the woman's infection.
Infections in Keelung
Meanwhile, one of the three reported domestic cases in Keelung involve a woman in her 40s who developed a sore throat and cough on Thursday, Chen said, adding that she sought medical attention the same day and a COVID-19 test which she received came back positive Friday.
The two other people confirmed as having COVID-19 were contacts of the woman, one of them being a police officer in his 50s who accompanied her to the hospital this week, the health minister said.
At the press event, Chen added that the CECC was also just notified that another police officer who came into contact with the Keelung woman has been confirmed as having COVID-19, but the case will be included in Saturday's count.
Authorities found that the officer also posed for a photograph Thursday with Keelung Mayor Lin Yu-chang (???), who has since been advised to get tested as a precautionary measure and observe quarantine at home for three days, he said.
Meanwhile, the other domestic case involved a factory worker in New Taipei's Zhonghe District who recently came down with a stuffy nose and sore throat before testing positive for COVID-19.
Currently, his source of infection also remains unknown, Chen said.
The epidemic center on Friday also said it had reclassified a COVID-19 case confirmed on March 19 as an imported infection to a domestically-transmitted one, following the results of recent genome sequencing carried out on the patient.
Meanwhile, the 122 new imported cases reported on Friday consisted of 61 males and 61 females with their ages ranging from under 5 to 80-something.
These individuals entered Taiwan from Feb. 13 to March 24 and came from a wide range of countries, including Vietnam, Indonesia, Germany, and the United States, as well as Hong Kong. Among them, 89 tested positive for the virus at the airport upon landing in Taiwan.
The CECC did not release any information regarding the vaccination status of the imported cases.
However, Chen did mention a recent imported cases involving a foreign national in his 70s infected with the COVID-19 Omicron variant.
Although diagnosed with COVID-19 induced pneumonia, the patient suffers from chronic illnesses including diabetes and hypertension, Chen said, adding that the man had already received two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and a Pfizer-BioNTech booster shot.
He is currently in a stable condition and continues to receive treatment in a hospital negative isolation ward, he added.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel