TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Sunday (Sept. 12) announced two new cases tied to a cluster infection involving the Delta variant of COVID-19 and centered on a kindergarten.
During a press conference, CECC Spokesperson Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) announced three local COVID-19 cases, including two men and one woman between the ages of 20 and 80 who are residents of Taipei, New Taipei City, and Taoyuan.
Of these cases, Chuang said that two are linked to the cluster infection associated with a kindergarten in New Taipei City's Banqiao District. Both of them are tied to a woman (Taiwan's case No. 16,152) who is the mother of a kindergarten student (case No. 16,141).
Meanwhile, case No. 16,185 is the woman's father-in-law, a man in his 70s who lives with her and the student in New Taipei. The other infection, case No. 16,197, is a male coworker of the woman who is in his 50s and lives in Taoyuan.
The father-in-law and coworker both have very low Ct values, 14.5 and 19, respectively, indicating they were infected very recently. Chuang said that the elderly man had been listed as a contact on Sept. 7, tested for the disease on Sept. 10, and diagnosed on Sept. 12.
The colleague was also listed as a contact on Sept. 7, tested on Sept. 10, and confirmed with the virus on Sept. 12. The fact that the coworker is a resident of Taoyuan raised concerns of a new community outbreak, but Chuang tried to reassure the public by stating that both new cases announced that day were "inside the firewall" and that based on existing information, the man was not active in the community during the contagious period.
Also announced on Sunday was a woman in her 20s who lives in Taipei's Wanhua District and works at a McDonald's in the city's Zhongshan District. McDonald's stated that it will halt operations at the restaurant for three days to conduct disinfection, and it will not allow indoor dining until Sept. 26.
The cycle threshold (Ct) value refers to the number of cycles the fluorescence of the PCR test is detectable. Generally, the higher the number, the longer the virus has gone undetected, while the lower the number, the more recent the infection likely occurred.
