TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Vietnamese worker listed as a contact for a confirmed Indonesian COVID-19 case has gone missing, provoking a search action by police and immigration officers, reports said Saturday (Dec. 5).

The Indonesian worker, listed as case No. 688, tested negative several times after her arrival in Taiwan on Nov. 13. However, a test requested by her employer and conducted on Dec. 1 turned out positive.

Following her compulsory 14-day quarantine, the Indonesian had been asked to self-monitor her health while staying at a dormitory with 47 other workers. The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) ordered those workers to be supervised and tested at a joint facility, but one of the 47 could not be found, CNA reported.

The missing person is a Vietnamese woman in her 30s who entered Taiwan on Nov. 13 and left quarantine on Nov. 28 following two negative tests. She stayed at a dormitory designated by a migrant broker Nov. 28-30 and at her Taiwanese employer’s home from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2. On the last day, she left the house in the morning but never returned, the report said.

Earlier Saturday, media reports suggested that case No. 688 might be a case of a domestic infection because of the long period of time between her arrival in Taiwan and her positive coronavirus test results. However, CECC Spokesman Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) rejected the claims, saying the results showed that the infection must have happened a considerable time ago.

The unaccounted-for Vietnamese woman and case No. 688 had only been in contact with each other over three days, leading the CECC to determine that the risk of infection between the two would be low. Nevertheless, the search for the missing worker would continue just to be on the safe side, Chuang said.

Of Taiwan’s total tally of 693 cases, 601 cases were imported, 55 local, 36 originated from the Navy’s "Goodwill Fleet," and one case was classified as unresolved. Seven patients had died of the coronavirus.