TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – Taiwan’s health authorities are quarantining 5,000 people as they search for the source of two new hospital-related coronavirus cases.
Officials said Monday that they have not been able to identify how the husband and wife became infected after a brief stay at Taoyuan General Hospital, located in Taoyuan City, on the outskirts of the capital. Taiwan. The man had been in the hospital for three days for unrelated health problems with COVID-19 while his wife was caring for him.
Those asked to be quarantined include patients who were discharged from the hospital from January 6 to 19 and their caregivers.
Taiwan is on higher alert after the latest national group, which has now seen 15 cases from Taoyuan Hospital.
Taiwan has been applauded for its swift and sustained efforts to contain COVID-19, with only seven deaths and less than 900 confirmed cases, despite its proximity to China, where the pandemic began.
In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:
– Thai health authorities reported 959 new cases of coronavirus infection, a record daily high expected after massive proactive trials began in a province that has been the center of the nation’s largest outbreak. The total announced on Tuesday includes 914 cases announced the day before in Samut Sakhon province alone, after health authorities began testing tests targeting up to 10,000 people a day for a week. Most of the confirmed cases in Samut Sakhon have been among Myanmar migrants working in the fishing industry and factories. Thailand has confirmed 14,644 cases, including 75 deaths since its first case in January last year. More than 10,000 of the total have been recorded since December 15, when the outbreak of Samut Sakhon was detected and a second cluster related to the dens was discovered.
– Chinese airlines offer refunded tickets as the coronavirus continues to spread to the northeast. Tuesday’s offer from the government’s aviation authority comes amid a push to prevent people from traveling during the Lunar New Year holidays next month. China has largely slowed the spread of the virus locally, but travel limits are maintained where outbreaks have been detected, including in the capital Beijing. Schools will be shut down a week earlier and migrant workers have been told not to return to their hometowns. The country’s death toll from COVID-19 rose one to 4,636 from 89,197 cases, the National Health Commission reported, with most new cases in the northeast where winter temperatures are well below freezing. The National Health Commission on Tuesday reported 53 new cases in Heilongjiang province, and another seven in Jilin province, just south. Beijing and Shanghai Mall reported two new cases.
– New Zealand health authorities said they have found no evidence that the coronavirus has spread to the community after confirming the first case outside a quarantine facility in more than two months. The woman presented with symptoms at home after being infected by a fellow traveler while in compulsory quarantine. COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said on Tuesday that 15 of the 16 identified close contacts of the woman had been negative, with a pending result. New Zealand has eliminated community transmission of the virus, at least for now.