COVID-19: No new cases linked to Pingtung COVID cluster – Experts

TAIPEI, Central Epidemic Control Center (CECC) today announced that no new cases of COVID-19 originating from a cluster outbreak in Pingtung featuring the highly infectious Delta variant of the virus were reported, indicating that it has been contained.

  Disclosing this today, the Health Minister, Chen Shih-chung who heads the CECC, said in a press briefing today that the cluster has been contained based on follow-up contact tracing and testing, while cautioned that people could not become complacent.

  “The cluster in the southern county has led to 12 confirmed infections so far, eight of which have been determined to be caused by the Delta variant.” The minister said.

  According to Shih-chung, the virus variant, first detected in India, was probably behind the other four confirmed cases based on the individuals’ contact history, but the genome sequencing of the virus in those four cases has yet to be completed.

  He said a total of 178 people linked to the Pingtung cluster have been isolated at home and tested, and the results of their PCR tests all came back negative.

  The first two people in the cluster, a woman in her 50s and her grandson who returned from Peru on June 6, have completed the mandatory procedures of home quarantine and self-health management, as have other passengers who arrived in Taiwan on the same flight.

  Among 38 contacts of the grandmother and grandson, 34 have tested negative for COVID-19, three are still waiting for their test results, and one person has left the country, Chen said.

  Also, the quarantine taxi drivers who drove some of the contacts home have been tested and the test results all came back negative, Chen said.

  Source says, 1,500 people in Pingtung tested for COVID-19 as at Sunday showed no positive result.