TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan will more than double the number of people who need to be quarantined at home to more than 5,000, as it seeks to contain a rare domestic group of COVID-19 connected to a hospital, the health minister said in Sunday.
Although Taiwan has kept the pandemic well under control thanks to early and effective prevention, with the vast majority of its 890 cases of imported infections, since January 12 it has dealt with a small number of domestic transmissions in a hospital.
Although the 15 people infected so far in the hospital in the northern city of Taoyuan are small compared to many other parts of the world, this made the government nervous, which 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 must have contact with infected patients in the hospital cluster who must have been quarantined at home for 14 days.
He estimated the number at about 5,000 people, compared with about 1,300 who are currently quarantined.
The government has tested everyone in quarantine and announced new cases as they are confirmed.
Taiwan has a well-developed system to track those who have been in contact with confirmed cases and an electronic monitoring network to ensure that those in quarantine remain at home.
Despite the new infections, Taiwan has only 95 active cases being treated at the hospital. The government holds press conferences to announce details of each new infection.
Reporting by Ben Blanchard; edition by David Evans