Taipei, Jan. 12, (dpa/GNA) – Taiwan on Tuesday announced two imported coronavirus cases and two locally transmitted cases, including a Taiwanese doctor treating a Covid-19 patient.
As of Tuesday, Taiwan, an island of 23.6 million people, had reported just 838 infections, including 741 imported cases, with seven virus-related deaths. Currently, 101 Covid-19 patients are receiving medical treatment in hospitals in Taiwan.
Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung told a news conference that the ill doctor, who works in a hospital in northern Taiwan, last week treated a seriously ill Covid-19 patient in a negative pressure isolation ward.
Meanwhile, the doctor’s girlfriend, who is a close contact, also tested positive for novel coronavirus. Chen said that, the female patient, in her 20s, is a nurse at the same hospital but she had never been assigned to take care of any Covid-19 patient.
Chen said that there was no cluster of infections in the hospital because more than 460 people, including health-care staff members, patients and family members, have all tested negative for the coronavirus.
Dozens of staff members in the hospital have been conducting self-isolation.
The doctor-turned-patient, in his 30s, is the first doctor in Taiwan who has contracted the coronavirus during treatment, according to the Central Epidemic Command Centre (CECC).
Previously, in February, three nurses and a cleaner in a hospital contracted the virus after contacting a patient without symptoms of Covid-19.
The two new imported cases include a Taiwanese woman, in her 60s, returning from the US and a British businessman in his 30s.
GNA