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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 CECC reports 34 domestic cases, keeps eye on expanding cluster in Keelung
The signs of restaurants, bars and massage establishments are pictured in the Liutiaotong area of Taipei’s Zhongshan District yesterday. Photo: CNA
GROWING CONCERN: A cluster in Keelung involving police officers and a restaurant has expanded to 39 cases, while another in Taoyuan has grown to 63 cases
By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
The Central Epidemic Command Center （CECC） yesterday reported 34 domestic cases of COVID-19 and said that the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 detected in a cluster of infections in Keelung is likely from Vietnam.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung （陳時中）, who heads the center, said the CECC is monitoring 11 local transmission chains with unknown infection sources, but is most concerned about the Keelung cluster.
Twelve new cases had expanded the cluster involving police officers and a restaurant to 39 cases, he said.
They are two administrative workers at the police department, three restaurant customers including a teacher at National Taiwan Ocean University, a student of the teacher and six students from a high school, he said, adding that classes at the high school had been suspended.
Centers for Disease Control （CDC） Deputy Director-General Philip Lo （羅一鈞）, who is deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said genome sequencing confirmed that four cases in Keelung had the BA.2.3 Omicron subvariant of SARS-CoV-2.
The subvariant is different from those previously detected in Taiwan and is most similar to a strain found in an imported case from Vietnam, although it is not exactly the same, so a direct link could not be confirmed, he said.
The subvariant is not more transmissible, severe or more fatal than other Omicron subvariants, he added.
Eleven new cases were linked to a cluster of infections connected to a construction site in Taoyuan and its workers’ dormitories in Hsinchu County, Chen said, adding that the new cases expanded the cluster to 63 cases.
Three new cases tested positive during isolation, with two of them linked to a cluster infection at a chemical plant in Kaohsiung, while the other is linked to a cluster at a technology company in New Taipei City’s Shulin District （樹林）.
In Taitung County, two cases were people who work at the same place as two previous cases linked to a cluster involving a family, while one is a woman who sought treatment for a fever, stuffy nose, sore throat and headache, Chen said.
Although 13 people tested positive in rapid COVID-19 tests at testing stations in Taitung yesterday morning, only one tested positive in a polymerase chain reaction test, but was not included in yesterday’s tally, he said.
In New Taipei City, two cases were linked to cases in Jhonghe District （中和）, he said, adding that they all live close to each other and visited the same convenience store, so local authorities are closely monitoring the area and advising residents to get tested.
Two cases, a two-year-old child and a friend of a previous case, were linked to a cluster involving an insurance salesperson in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District （三重）, Chen said.
Another New Taipei City case was a woman without symptoms who tested positive after taking a COVID-19 test before visiting a person in a hospital, he said.
The CECC also reclassified five imported cases who were quarantined on the same floor of a hotel in Taipei as domestic, as they were likely infected while in quarantine, Chen said.
The center also reported 93 imported cases.
Disease prevention measures and mask mandates would remain unchanged next month, it said.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
