Taiwan on Friday reported 18 new locally transmitted and 61 imported COVID-19 cases, and reclassified three previously confirmed cases as domestic infections involving guests who stayed in quarantine hotels in Taoyuan and Kaohsiung, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).
Of the 18 new domestic cases, 13 were recorded in Kaohsiung, three in New Taipei and two in Taoyuan, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said during the CECC’s press briefing that day.
Cases in Kaohsiung
Among the 13 cases in Kaohsiung, 12 are listed as part of a cluster that currently has a total of 20 infections, Chen said.
The first four cases in the cluster — three cousins and a family friend — were reported on Feb. 9 and genome sequencing results have linked the family cluster to the wider outbreak related to the Port of Kaohsiung, according to the CECC.
The 12 individuals include the owner of a gravel supplier and two of his co-workers, including his wife, family members and relatives of theirs and two other employees confirmed to have been infected on Thursday, Chen said.
Because a daughter of the gravel supplier’s owner was among the newly confirmed cases, the high school she attends in Tainan was closed on the first day of the new semester Friday.
The remaining case in Kaohsiung involves a woman, the youngest of five sisters, whose families from New Taipei and Pingtung traveled together during the Lunar New Year holiday, according to Chen.
Two of her sisters were confirmed to have COVID-19 on Thursday after one of them, who lives in Kaohsiung, went to see a doctor and tested positive for the disease Tuesday, according to the CECC.
Cases in New Taipei, Taoyuan
Meanwhile, the oldest of the five sisters, who lives in New Taipei, was one of the three cases reported in that city Friday, after her two children were reported as confirmed cases a day earlier, Chen said.
In New Taipei, the boyfriend of one of the daughters in a family of four from the city’s Banqiao District, who was confirmed to have been infected on Feb. 8, became the latest case linked to the family cluster, Chen said. The boyfriend’s mother was one of the cases confirmed on Wednesday.
Genome sequencing results from one daughter showed she contracted the same Omicron strain of the coronavirus responsible for the wider outbreak in Taoyuan, where the first case involving a janitor at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport was reported on Jan. 3.
The other case in New Taipei involved a woman in her 20s, who works at the same drink shop in the city’s Xizhi District as an individual confirmed as positive for COVID-19 Thursday, Chen said.
Taoayun added two cases to the cluster surrounding Re-Yi Distribution Service Co., where the number of infections rose to 40, after two more family members of infected employees tested positive for COVID-19.
Genome sequencing results from the first case in the cluster reported on Jan. 28 and of two other cases indicate they contracted the same Omicron strain of the virus as the airport janitor, according to the CECC.
Of the new cases, 14 were classified as breakthrough infections, including six who had received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, one received the second dose only within the past 14 days, while three are unvaccinated, including two children under the age of 10, who are not eligible to receive the vaccine in Taiwan, according to the CECC.
Quarantine hotel clusters
The CECC also reclassified three previously confirmed imported cases, as domestic, as genome sequencing results showed they contracted the same coronavirus as other guests who stayed in quarantine hotels in Taoyuan and Kaohsiung.
Since December, Taiwan has identified 10 quarantine hotel clusters, and 18 cases which, including the three on Friday, have been reclassified as locally acquired infections, the CECC said.
In addition to the domestic cases, Taiwan also reported 61 imported cases on Friday, including 32 who tested positive on arrival in Taiwan Thursday, while the others entered the country as early as Jan. 13, according to the CECC.
The CECC did not release any information regarding the vaccination status of the imported cases.
To date, Taiwan has confirmed 19,455 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began in early 2020, including 15,296 domestically transmitted infections.
With no deaths reported on Friday, the number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths in the country remains at 851.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel