Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday announced six new cases of COVID-19 have been detected in the country. All six new cases are believed to have been ‘imported’ by individuals with recent overseas travel history.
As of Monday morning, March 16th local time, of 16,911 cases reported in Taiwan to date, the virus has been ruled out in 16,464 cases according to the CECC.
The six new cases include patients who have recently travelled to Thailand then Hokkaido in Japan, another who attended a group tour to Egypt, and others with time spent in Turkey, Spain and Greece.
The patient who had been to Greece is a high school student in the north of Taiwan, and as they attended school for a week following their return to Taiwan on March 5th, and prior to developing symptoms, the individual’s classmates are now being quarantined at home for 14 days whilst the school buildings are disinfected and all those in contact with the patient are monitored for signs of the virus.
The individuals in question in this latest group range in age from their 20s to their 70s according to the CECC reports.
Globally meanwhile, around 152,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, with over 5,730 deaths reported in 134 countries.