TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan will double the number of people who have to quarantine at home to more than 5,000, as it tries to contain a rare internal group of COVID-19 connected to a hospital, the health minister said on Sunday.
While Taiwan has maintained good control of the pandemic due to early and effective prevention, with the vast majority of its 890 cases of imports of its infections, since January 12 it has dealt with a small number of internal transmissions to a hospital.
While the 15 people infected so far at the hospital in the northern city of Taoyuan are small compared to many other parts of the world, it has upset the government, which has canceled many large-scale events related to the upcoming Lunar New Year.
Health Minister Chen Shih-chung told reporters that they will expand the number of people who have to be quarantined at home for 14 days who may have had contact with infected patients in the hospital group.
It numbered about 5,000 people, compared to about 1,300 who are currently in quarantine.
The government has tested all those in quarantine and announced new cases among them as they are confirmed.
Taiwan has a well-developed system to track people who have been in contact with confirmed cases and an electronic monitoring network to ensure that those in quarantine stay home.
Despite the new infections, Taiwan has only 95 active cases that are being treated in the hospital. The government is holding press conferences to announce details of each new infection.
Ben Blanchard’s report; edited by David Evans