The Taoyuan General Hospital, where a group of Covid-19 coronavirus infections were detected, on January 19th.
Photographer: Sam Yeh / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Sam Yeh / AFP / Getty Images
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Taiwan’s health authorities have implemented their biggest closure measures to date in an effort to prevent a broad outbreak of Covid-19 from getting out of control.
Patients, caregivers and medical staff at a hospital in the northern city of Taoyuan amid a growing outbreak will have to quarantine in-house for 14 days immediately, Taiwan’s Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said during a briefing on Sunday. said in Taipei. It will also include all the people they live with, and the number involved can reach as many as 5,000, Chen said.
The order applies to everyone who entered the hospital between January 6 and January 19. All those affected will have to continue to monitor their health for another seven days and take a Covid test after leaving the quarantine.
The latest steps are the most difficult measures yet taken by the health authorities, as they are struggling to contain the virus after it started spreading in Taoyuan Hospital in northern Taiwan earlier this month. The outbreak poses the biggest threat to Taiwan’s largely successful response to the coronavirus pandemic to date.
Taiwan has recorded only 889 cases and a total of seven deaths since the start of the pandemic, but officials have reported a steady stream of local infections related to the hospital in recent weeks. Earlier in the day, Chen said there were five new cases on Sunday, one of which was a man who stayed in the hospital a few weeks ago, plus one of his family members.