TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A case of the Omicron subvariant BA.5 is believed to be the source of a cluster infection at a shipyard in southern Taiwan.

Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC's medical response division, announced that a man in his 50s who had received three doses of the COVID vaccine and had been previously diagnosed with the virus on May 18, tested positive again on July 13, after experiencing a cough, sore throat, and muscle pain.

A test administered that day came back positive with a Ct value of 17 and the man was deemed to have suffered a repeat infection and genetic sequencing showed that his second infection had been caused by BA.5. Lo said that three of the shipyard worker's family members have been tested for the virus, and two have received positive results thus far.

Lo said that the family members had Ct. values of 21 and 22. Out of the 118 workers listed as contacts at the shipyard, one is overseas, one is undergoing testing, while the rest have completed their testing.

Of these 116 work contacts, 106 were negative and 10 were positive, of which eight were newly confirmed COVID cases with Ct values ranging from 23 to 26. Two were previously diagnosed with COVID between May and July, with Ct values of 30 and 37.

Lo said that due to the risk of exposure to overseas sources of infection, this case was initially being judged to be part of family and workplace cluster infections. However, genetic sequencing is still underway to confirm that these cases have all been infected with the BA.5 subvariant.

He emphasized that since this case involves shipyard workers at an international port, the CECC has requested that the management of the port strengthen the implementation of epidemic prevention measures and actively urge personnel to receive a second COVID booster shot.

According to CECC statistics, 416 cases of Omicron subvariant infections have been reported in Taiwan. This includes 62 cases of BA.4 and 354 cases of BA.5.

Thus far, there have been nine local cases of BA.5 reported, including seven who contracted the disease when picking up passengers from the airport and two who contracted the disease from the local community.

Genetic sequencing has been carried out on 245 cases of repeat infections in Taiwan. Of these, two were found to be caused by BA.5, while the remaining 243 were attributed to BA.2.

As for imported cases, eight were found to have been infected with BA.4, while 38 had contracted BA.5. Among these infections were 23 males and 23 females ranging in age from their teens to their 70s.

Between June 29 and July 16, the largest number of cases arrived from Thailand and Germany, followed by Japan, South Korea, and the U.S., said Lo. In the region, Lo pointed out that the steady stream of imported BA.5 cases from Thailand, Japan, and South Korea indicates that the subvariant has spread extensively across Asia.