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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 CECC reports two cases, clarifying second one
Central Epidemic Command Center spokesman Chuang Jen-hsiang, center, who is also deputy director-general of the Centers for Disease Control, reports two more imported COVID-19 cases at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Photo: CNA
By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
The Central Epidemic Command Center （CECC） yesterday reported two imported cases of COVID-19 — an Indonesian worker and a Taiwanese who returned from China — adding that it is conducting virus cultivation to clarify whether the second case could be a locally transmitted infection.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang （莊人祥）, who is also the CECC spokesman, said the Indonesian worker arrived on Nov. 23 and had provided a negative COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction （PCR） test result issued within three days of boarding a flight to Taiwan.
The woman, who is in her 20s, did not have any symptoms, but tested positive on Monday before the end of her quarantine, he said.
The other confirmed case is a Taiwanese businessman in his 50s who had traveled to China’s Zhejiang Province in mid-September and had provided a negative PCR test before boarding a flight to Taiwan. He did not show any symptoms when he arrived on Nov. 22.
However, the man — case No. 719 — developed a fever and chills on Friday while staying at a quarantine hotel. He took a PCR test on Saturday, which came back positive yesterday, with a relatively low cycle threshold value （CT-value） of 15, Chuang said.
The man received a second PCR test on Monday evening, which again came back positive yesterday, with a low CT value of 17, Chuang said, adding that the low CT values and a negative antibody test result suggest he was infected fairly recently.
A second test was conducted to avoid a repetition of an error made in late October, when the center reported that a Taiwanese who returned from China’s Jiangsu Province tested positive, but later found out that his specimen had accidentally been swapped with that from another foreign traveler.
Case No. 719 returned to Taiwan via Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport. Several confirmed cases were detected at the airport that day, prompting it to test more than 16,000 people at the time.
The CECC will report the case to the Chinese authorities, so they can investigate whether he might have been infected in Zhejiang or Shanghai, Chuang said.
As the man began having symptoms 12 days after arriving in Taiwan, he could have been infected in China and returned during the incubation period, Chuang said, adding that the center does not rule out that he might have been infected in Taiwan.
The man went straight to a quarantine hotel after arrival, stayed in a room alone and had no contact with other people, so the possibility of a locally transmitted infection is relatively low, he said.
Nonetheless, the center is conducting virus cultivation to analyze the genome sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 strain in his body, to better determine the possible source of infection, he added.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
