Taiwan local governments said Wednesday that some of the COVID-19 patients in a preschool cluster had traveled on the Taipei MRT and visited popular scenic spots in Hualien and Miaoli before they tested positive for the virus.
The first two cases in the cluster — a preschool teacher and her husband — were confirmed on Sept. 5, and by Wednesday the number of infections had spiked to 23.
Apart from the first couple, the confirmed patients are nine students at the preschool, nine of their relatives, and three people who live in the same apartment complex as one of the students, according to the Central Emergency Command Center (CECC).
Genome sequencing showed that at least 10 of the patients in the cluster in New Taipei’s Banqiao District were infected with the Delta variant of the coronavirus, the CECC said.
One of the 23 people in the cluster — the mother of one of the students infected with the Delta variant — had traveled on the Taipei MRT from Xinpu Station to Xinbeitou Station, transferring at Taipei Main Station, on the morning of Sept. 4, Taipei’s Department of Health said Wednesday.
On the afternoon of Sept. 5, she went in the opposite direction, transferring again at Taipei Main Station, the department said.
Another infected parent, whose child also has the Delta variant, had been taking the Taipei MRT every weekday, morning and evening, between Xinpu and Yongning stations, before she tested positive, the health department said.
She had also been traveling on the No. 667 bus on weekday evenings, the New Taipei Department of Health said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the family of one of the children in the preschool cluster had made a road trip to Chiayi County, traveling by car to visit a relative, and they spent two hours there before returning to New Taipei, the county’s Health Bureau said, but it did not give any dates.
The relative in Chiayi is now in quarantine but has tested negative for COVID-19 so far, the bureau said.
One of the students at the preschool, who was confirmed as a Delta variant case, visited Baishatun Gong Tian Temple in Miaoli County with his family on Aug. 28 and Sept. 4, the county government said.
As a result, the temple had been closed temporarily and a COVID-19 testing station has been set up in its parking lot to facilitate residents of the area who wish to get tested, the local government said.
On Sept. 3, a student’s father, who has tested positive for COVID-19, went to Baishawan Beach in New Taipei in the afternoon, according to the city’s Department of Health.
The department said that another patient in the cluster, one of the family’s neighbors who is a nurse anesthetist at National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH), took a train trip to Hualien County on Sept. 3.
After she arrived, she ate at a sushi restaurant and a rice noodle restaurant in the evening, and the next day, she went to the New Paradiso shopping complex, Harvest Ranch Resort and Tungtamen Night Market, the department said.
On Sept. 5, she visited Chongde Farm before returning to New Taipei by train, it said.
Prior to Sept. 3, she had been traveling daily on the Taipei MRT Bannan and Tamsui lines, stopping most frequently at Jiangzicui, NTU Hospital, and Xinpu stations, according to the department.
Taipei’s Department of Health on Wednesday also released a list of places that a Taiwanese national returning to Taiwan had visited after his 14-day quarantine ended and before he tested positive for COVID-19.
The man arrived from India on Aug. 14 and tested negative twice during quarantine, the department said. In preparation for going abroad again, he took a COVID-19 test on Monday, and the results came back positive, it said.
Before that, however, the man had visited the Neihu branch of Dreamers Coffee Roasters on Sept. 2, the Bade Road branch of Carrefour supermarket on Sept. 4, and the Songshan branch of PX Mart near Nanjing Sanmin metro station, the Taipei health department said.
According to the New Taipei City health department, the man had also visited a Chien Tu Hotpot restaurant on Shuangshi Road in Banqiao District on Sept. 5.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel