《TAIPEI TIMES》 Changhua health chief defends rapid test campaign

By Chang Tsung-chiu and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Changhua County Public Health Bureau Director Yeh Yen-po （葉彥伯） yesterday defended the county’s testing of people under home quarantine who have no symptoms of COVID-19, saying that if he could turn back the clock, he would have made the same decision.

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Yeh had instructed the county to conduct a pathology investigation for COVID-19 and since April has been conducting rapid diagnostic tests of people under home quarantine who have no symptoms.

The nation’s 485th case was discovered on Saturday last week after one of these tests. He was a Taiwanese teen living in the US who arrived on Aug. 5 for a family visit.

The county’s action was a departure from Central Epidemic Command Center （CECC） protocols, in which returning travelers who have had no contact with any confirmed COVID-19 patients are tested only if they show symptoms or are traveling from the Philippines.

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung （陳時中）, who heads the center, on Tuesday instructed the health ministry’s Department of Civil Service Ethics to launch an investigation into the bureau to clarify the matter.

Chen on Thursday said he understood Yeh’s position that studies support testing asymptomatic people for COVID-19, but the bureau should have informed the CECC first.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Yeh said he hoped that the central and local government could continue to work together as they did in February, when their collaborations helped to isolate and test an individual — a taxi driver — who would later become the nation’s first COVID-19 fatality.

Officials and doctors nationwide worked together to help contain the pandemic, Yeh said, citing how Chen collaborated with the National Police Agency and the National Health Insurance Administration to obtain the phone records of the taxi driver.

“We were like the castle walls and the moat keeping COVID-19 at bay,” Yeh said, adding that he hoped the latest incident would soon blow over so that everyone could again focus on disease prevention efforts.

Citing President Tsai Ing-wen （蔡英文）, Yeh said the nation must stand united against the pandemic, adding: “I personally support Minister Chen 100 percent.”

“The main point of conflict is that the county had done more than what was regulated and if we had not found this one case, by the very nature of pandemics, the one case could become 32 in a matter of months,” Yeh said.

When asked about the possibility that the central government would refuse to pay for the expenses incurred by the county’s screening procedures, Yeh said Changhua had observed all regulations and due procedures when compiling the budget report.

The entire process is transparent and each transaction was documented, Yeh said, adding that Chen has said that as long as doctors had presided over the screening, the central government would pay for all expenses incurred.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES