A hospital in Tainan’s Xinying District will suspend outpatient services until March 13 after two employees tested positive for COVID-19, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said Wednesday.
The two employees are among three new domestic cases Taiwan reported Wednesday.
Cases in Tainan
Speaking at a press briefing, CECC official Lo Yi-chun (???) said the employees are a pharmacist and a pharmacy assistant, who had both received two or three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
They were tested for COVID-19 after four patients who went to the hospital for physical therapy and one of their caregivers tested positive for the disease, Lo said, adding that the five people took the same shuttle bus to the hospital.
The hospital’s physical therapy department and medicine storage area are on the same floor, Lo said.
The infections are all connected to the same cluster, of which the first reported case was an employee at a Kaohsiung buffet restaurant. The employee’s family members, including her parents, have also tested positive.
Two other individuals who were in the same tour group as the employee’s parents in late February also tested positive, and so have several of their relatives, one of whom was among the patients who went to the hospital for physical therapy.
According to Lo, Tainan health authorities have tested a total of 432 employees, volunteers, patients, and family members of patients at the hospital, and they all returned negative test results.
The hospital will suspend outpatient services until March 13 and stop admitting new inpatients for the time being, Lo said.
Other domestic case
The third domestic COVID-19 case reported Wednesday is a family member of a previously recorded case in the same cluster, bringing the total number of cases in the cluster to 20.
The patient is an elementary school student who was in quarantine when she tested positive. Because she is under 12 years old, she is not eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine in Taiwan.
Imported cases
In addition to the domestic cases, the CECC also reported 74 imported cases on Wednesday, including 54 travelers who tested positive on arrival in Taiwan. The CECC did not release any information regarding the vaccination status of the imported cases.
To date, Taiwan has confirmed 20,999 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began in early 2020, including 15,475 domestically transmitted infections.
With no deaths reported Wednesday, the number of confirmed COVID-19 fatalities in the country remains at 853.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel