'Model Country for Quarantine' a Thing of the Past? Taiwan Quarantines Record Number Due to COVID-19 Infections

Chen Shih-chung, Taiwan's Minister of Health, giving a briefing
[EPA=Yonhap News archive photo][Image source = Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Eun-young] In Taiwan, which has been called a 'model country for quarantine' and has suffered relatively little damage from the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), a record number of people have been quarantined due to hospital-acquired COVID-19 infections.

On the 24th, foreign media including Apple Daily reported that Taiwan's health authorities announced that a patient in their 90s (No. 881) and their eldest daughter in her 60s (No. 882), who were hospitalized at Taoyuan Hospital in northern Taiwan, tested positive on the 21st, and the third daughter in her 50s (No. 885) was also infected.

The health authorities stated that since a medical staff member (No. 838) was first confirmed positive at Taoyuan Hospital on the 12th, the number of confirmed cases has increased to 13, and the number of people quarantined amounts to 967.

Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), Minister of Taiwan's Ministry of Health and Welfare, said that among the 967 quarantined individuals are 403 from Taoyuan Hospital, 260 from the local community, 304 traced contacts under quarantine, and hospital staff waiting at home.

He added that the 967 people represent the highest number since the outbreak of COVID-19.

Taiwanese media reported, "Due to this situation, concerns about community transmission are growing," and are closely monitoring hospital-acquired COVID-19 infections.

Pedestrians on the streets of Taipei
[EPA=Yonhap News][Image source = Yonhap News]

Meanwhile, on the 22nd, Taiwanese media reported that the Ministry of Health and Welfare discovered the 'L452R' and 'D614G' variant viruses, which have spread in Europe and the United States, in COVID-19 patients at Taoyuan Hospital under its jurisdiction the previous day.

The health authorities said that five people, including a man in his 60s (No. 812) who returned from the United States at the end of last month and was quarantining at home before testing positive earlier this month, and four medical staff, were infected with the L452R variant virus, marking the first time the L452R variant has been detected in Taiwan.

As the COVID-19 spread intensifies recently in Taiwan, which was called a 'model country for quarantine,' local governments in Taiwan's outer islands Kinmen (金門) and Lienchiang (連江), as well as Miaoli (苗栗) in the northwest, urged public officials the previous day to refrain from unnecessary business trips to Taoyuan.

The total number of COVID-19 patients in Taiwan as of the 24th is 885 (7 deaths).