Taoyuan General Hospital.
Photographer: Sam Yeh / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Sam Yeh / AFP / Getty Images
Taiwanese health officials have implemented their broader blocking measures in an effort to prevent a growing Covid-19 outbreak from getting out of hand.
Patients, caregivers and medical staff at a hospital in the city of Taoyuan, at the center of a growing outbreak, will have to be quarantined at home for 14 days immediately, Taiwan Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said at a news conference in Taipei on Sunday. This also includes all the people they live with, and the number of people involved could reach 5,000, said Chen.
The application covers anyone who entered the hospital between January 6 and January 19. All those affected will have to continue monitoring their health for another seven days and do a Covid test after leaving quarantine.
The latest measures are the toughest measures ever taken by health officials as they struggle to contain the virus after it began to spread at Taoyuan General Hospital in northern Taiwan earlier this month. The outbreak represents the biggest threat to Taiwan’s successful response to the coronavirus pandemic so far.
Taiwan has recorded only 889 cases and seven deaths in total since the pandemic began, but officials have reported a steady stream of local hospital-related infections in recent weeks. Earlier in the day, Chen said there were five new cases on Sunday, one of which was a man who was in the hospital several weeks ago, in addition to one of his family members.