TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A woman on Wednesday (Sept. 22) became the third person to be confirmed with COVID-19 in one New Taipei City household.
Deputy Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) chief Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥) on Wednesday afternoon announced that the day's sole local infection, case No. 16,263, is a woman in her 30s who had been placed in quarantine after being listed as a contact of case Nos. 16,146 and 16,157. As her quarantine was set to expire, she was tested for the coronavirus and diagnosed with it on Wednesday.
Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, explained that the woman had been placed in quarantine because she had been listed as a contact of a student (case No. 16,146) at an elementary school in New Taipei's Zhonghe District as well as of his grandmother (case No. 16,157). Lo said that while the woman underwent quarantine, she had tested negative for the virus and that it was not until her quarantine was at its end that she received a positive result on a second test.
With the confirmation of the woman's diagnosis, the family cluster infection in Zhonghe District has risen to three people. Lo said the woman's Ct value was found to be 27.8, while the results of an antibody test are still pending.
He said that based on a preliminary investigation, CECC officials believe the woman contracted the disease from her elderly relative, case No. 16,157. Lo asserted that because the woman's Ct value is relatively high, it indicates that she was infected for quite some time and was an example of an older case in the community that had gone undetected.
Lo stressed that it does not appear that this family cluster is related to the kindergarten cluster infection in the city's Banqiao District. As for the kindergarten cluster infection, 33 people were diagnosed with the virus and 3,600 contacts were listed.
According to Lo, the results of coronavirus tests on the remaining 380 community contacts of the kindergarten cluster will be released on Wednesday evening. He said that as long as all of this last batch of tests come back negative, the center will close the kindergarten cluster case investigation.