Taiwan reported on Saturday six new domestic cases of COVID-19, one involving a man from Singapore who has recently been working in various harbor areas in central and southern Taiwan.
Marine surveyor infection
In a video news statement, CECC spokesperson Chuang Jen-hsiang (???) said the patient from Singapore is a marine surveyor in his 40s who already received two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and a Moderna booster shot.
Due to his occupation, which requires him to board and inspect merchant vessels, the man received two polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests on Feb. 14 and Feb. 19, both of which came back negative, Chuang said.
However, a third COVID-19 test on Feb. 24 was positive, with a cycle threshold (CT) value of 23, he said.
A total of 68 people have been identified as contacts, of which 63 have so far tested negative for the disease while five others have yet to be tested, Chuang said.
Authorities are inspecting the workplaces the marine surveyor has visited since Feb. 19 in the hope of identifying the possible source of his infection, the CECC spokesman said. He did not rule out the possibility that the man could have contracted the disease onboard a vessel.
COVID-19 cases involving Taoyuan family
Meanwhile, Chuang said three other domestically-transmitted cases involved a Taoyuan family who live together.
A father in his 30s who began showing symptoms including a cough on Feb. 23, got tested for COVID-19 on Feb. 25 because of his job requirement, and the result came back positive with a CT value of 26, he said, adding that an investigation into the source of infection is still ongoing.
According to Chuang, the man’s wife who works in the logistics sector and their young son also developed a cough and runny nose prior to being tested for the disease.
Meanwhile, the two other new domestic cases were linked to recently confirmed COVID-19 cases, which included a male employee at a hotpot restaurant in New Taipei who likely caught the disease from a father and son who recently visited the establishment.
The other case is a male co-worker of a woman who was confirmed as having the disease on Friday. That day, the CECC said the latter may have contracted the disease from her sister, who was reported as an imported case from the United States on Feb. 20.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel