TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) has announced the first case of a quarantine taxi driver contracting COVID.

CECC head Chen Shih-c hung (陳時中) on Tuesday (Jan. 4) announced that Taiwan's COVID-19 case No. 17,230 is a woman in her 40s who works on the cleaning crew at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. She has a Ct value of 11 and based on preliminary genetic analysis is infected with the Omicron variant.

After her coworkers were tested, two of them — case Nos. 17,238 and 17,239 — were confirmed to have COVID. Because the woman works in a taxi waiting area, hundreds of quarantine taxi drivers have been undergoing tests, with one of them (case 17,240) testing positive.

Chen said that 314 quarantine taxi drivers were tested on Monday (Jan. 3), and the number rose to 600 by Tuesday (Jan. 4). Thus far, 313 of Monday's tests have come back negative and one is positive for the virus.

Driver being tested for COVID. (CNA photo)

On Dec. 16 and 31, the driver (case No. 17,240) carried passengers who later tested positive. On Jan. 1, he developed a cough, but whether he was infected by one of his passengers, an airport employee, or another source is still under investigation.

Chen said this is the first case of a quarantine taxi driver becoming infected. He explained the driver had undergone a PCR test for the virus on Dec. 29 but tested negative.

After testing again at the start of January, he was diagnosed with COVID on Jan. 4, with a Ct value of 28.4.