Taiwan: Nurse Confirmed Positive Following First Infection Among Medical Staff

[Asia Economy Reporter Dongwoo Lee] According to Taiwanese media reports on the 17th, a doctor at a hospital in Taiwan was recently the first among Taiwanese medical staff to be infected with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) while treating patients, followed by a nurse working at the same hospital who also tested positive.

According to foreign media including Apple Daily on the same day, Taiwan's health authorities announced at an emergency briefing at 10 PM on the 16th that a nurse in her 20s (No. 852) working at a hospital in Taoyuan (桃園), northern Taiwan, was infected with COVID-19.

At this hospital, a doctor (No. 838) was first infected with COVID-19 while treating patients on the 12th.

The health authorities stated that the nurse tested negative for COVID-19 on the 11th but showed symptoms such as coughing and sore throat on the 14th, leading to a retest that confirmed infection on the 16th.

The authorities presumed that the nurse was infected by the doctor at the same hospital who had previously tested positive. Before the doctor was confirmed positive, on the 10th, he visited the nurse's ward nursing desk three times for work-related reasons, staying about one hour during one of those visits, which is believed to be when the infection occurred.

Accordingly, 54 people including 32 nurses and 22 doctors from the same ward have entered self-quarantine.