4 new local cases, 6 imported.
Seems to be family members of existing cases.
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Hope they’re already in isolation.
Yes, seems to be that way.
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But isn’t the point that having all of these potentially exposed people running around was a huge risk that could have been prevented? Some people here don’t like Vietnam because communism, but Vietnam’s quarantine rules for contacts and contacts of contacts is just good public health policy that doesn’t require China-style lock downs of entire cities. In fact, it reduces the risk of that becoming necessary.
Speaking of contact tracing, I believe it’s still the case that they don’t know who case 889 got the virus from? He was at the hospital, but they can’t connect him to any of the other cases at the hospital. So that means they’re either missing a connection, he got it from someone else at the hospital who hasn’t been identified as a case yet (and maybe never will be), or he got in in the community (seems unlikely).
Contact tracing is difficult work. There were lots of people at the hospital and you can’t test asymptomatic people every day for weeks. But it sort of gives an idea of how fast the ability to contact trace can fall apart if you give the virus an unnecessary head start.
And 889 wasn’t the only person who was infected and potentially contagious out and about in public. Mos Girl was the really concerning one.
If the hospital outbreak remains small, which it hopefully will, the bottom line is that luck will have played a huge role. I think most of us will take being lucky, but the issue is that we might not be the next time.
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And one died. 
What really? I didn’t see that.
Translation:
Case 907 has a history of chronic kidney disease, diabetes, hypertension, heart failure, etc., and symptoms such as loss of appetite, fatigue, and fever on January 28. On January 29, due to persistent symptoms and symptoms of cough and dyspnea, medical examination was arranged He tested positive and died last night.
Died a day after symptoms presented, that’s fast.
May not have been the virus that killed her though.
He had all the comorbidities associated with bad outcomes.
Yeah it’s the dying from Covid versus dying with Covid debate.
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Yikes.
Three of the newly confirmed domestic cases are family members of an infected nurse at the hospital, and one of the three – a woman in her 80s – has died, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said in a statement.
The woman is the first COVID-19 patient to have died in Taiwan since May 11, 2020, according to the CECC.
The fourth case involves an individual who had visited an inpatient at the hospital confirmed to be infected with the virus on Jan. 24.
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In addition to the domestic cases, Taiwan on Saturday reported six new imported cases of COVID-19 arriving from Indonesia, Czech Republic and Brazil, CECC said.
Three of the cases are from Brazil. No bueno.
Yes this would be consistent with history of first case to rise in cases. It is the 14th day after the first case that is critical. The next week will tell the story. If we get new local cases each day, we could be in some rough terrain. CNY could be bumpy.
I hope luck is on our side.
We all need to continue to be sensible. Masks hand sanitizer and social distancing as best as possible.
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It seems it was a family of four (cases 903-906); they apparently quarantined together upon return. One showed symptoms, and the others followed.
Guy
“The fourth case involves an individual who had visited an inpatient at the hospital confirmed to be infected with the virus on Jan. 24.”
Maybe this is one to look out for?
I agree. Its hard to believe Taiwan could not source for example 1000 vaccines for the 500 most at risk persons. This would be the medical personnel in contact with known infections (arriving people found positive). Next in line Pilots and flight attendants, there are so few flights that the numbers needed are very low. After that airport people and quarantine taxi drivers. This would already make the quarantine system much much resilient.
I also believe the world is backwards with vaccinating old people in retirement homes. The employees of these homes should be close to top of the list but after that the list should have people who need to move around and see other people. Police officers, teachers who teach multiple schools / classes, delivery drivers who need face to face contact (for example serving the retiment homes / bringing food), shop cashiers and so on. It would cut the transmission of the virus much faster. And yes it sucks not to meet family but its better overall for the community, even for long term death count I believe. I haven’t seen my elderly parents since x-mas 2019 so I know how it feels.
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As it is not clear if at all and if so, to what extent the vaccine prevents transmissions by the vaccinated person, the strategy saving most lives according to all models run in Western countries is vaccinating the very old people first. Though optimal vaccination strategy in a country like Taiwan without any significant local cases could of course be different
More information about this case.
On Jan. 23, the man in his 50s accompanied his mother to the hospital and stayed there for about an hour. While in a waiting room they were in contact with the person later designated as case No. 889, for about 20 minutes, the CECC said.
When they went to pick up their medicines, the mother was closer to the infected individual, yet she tested negative, according to CECC chief Chen Shih-chung (陳時中). The man was told to isolate at home and was still asymptomatic, even though his latest test turned out positive for the virus.
Wonder if they were wearing masks the whole time?
For reference, here are the places Case 889 visited:
This new variant/strain definitely seems to spread more easily. A bit concerning that 889 and 890 were in so many public places, and on days after they first developed symptoms.
The new case (908) is asymptomatic and apparently only tested because he went to the hospital and could be identified as a contact of 889.
Part of it, IIRC, is not ‘overwhelming the system’ but rather a combination of not wanting (a) false negatives for people who are sick making them think they’re safe and can go out and about with wild abandon (b) false positives for people who are not sick which scares & confuses the public and causes more unnecessary quarantine and trouble for those people and anyone they contacted.
In my personal opinion, I don’t know why people seem so hyper-focused on changing quarantine rules or changing rules on letting people into the country (gold card thread etc.). The recent cases are not people who have come out of the 2-week quarantine and still been infectious without any symptoms. Not to say the system is perfect, but some people - both in this thread and in the public at large - seem to be overly focused on changing things that so far, haven’t been the cause of major issues.
For example, increasing the flight attendant quarantine to 7 days seems unnecessary IMO. No cases in my memory have come from post-quarantine flight attendants being infected after their 5-day quarantine. Again, not that a 7-day quarantine for flight attendants is unreasonable, I just think that it’s more virtue signaling since the public is scared than it is actually useful. 
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I broadly agree with you, but when scandals hit, the authorities do tend to adjust. The flight crew regulation change came after multiple scandals involving both EVA and China Airlines crew. The authorities saw that the system was not effective (i.e. it was being flaunted publicly) so they acted. The overall messaging has been: don’t even think about messing with the rules! And frankly I am fine with that. 
Guy
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