• By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said it was easing regulations for home quarantine, as the number of COVID-19 cases rises, but with a large majority reporting no or mild symptoms.

As local community spread might continue to expand, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that home quarantine rules for contacts of local cases have been eased.

The policy of one person per room with an exclusive bathroom has been relaxed to allow people living in the same house to quarantine together, but they must disinfect shared bathrooms after every use, he said.

Photo courtesy of Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital via CNA

The new rules do not apply to inbound travelers, who must follow the policy of one person per room, he added.

The CECC also reported 281 local COVID-19 infections, marking the highest daily case count this year, and 78 imported cases, including 27 people who tested positive upon arrival at the airport on Tuesday.

The 281 local cases were from 17 cities and counties, including 115 in New Taipei City, 45 in Taipei, 37 in Kaohsiung, 26 in Keelung, 17 in Taoyuan and 12 in Hsinchu County, Chen said.

As of 8am yesterday, 163 of the cases had no known sources of infection and were undergoing contact tracing, CECC data showed.

Chen said 40 cases are linked to a cluster in New Taipei City, and most of them are students and their close contacts; 32 cases are linked to a cluster in Keelung; a cluster of 12 new cases were reported among workers and close contacts of a business venue in Kaohsiung; and eight new cases involved workers at a business venue in Taipei.

The two clusters in Kaohsiung and Taipei are business venues with more “complicated” customers, he said.

In addition to the two clusters, Chen said the cluster in New Taipei City involving relatives and schools, the Keelung cluster and a cluster involving a dance studio in Taoyuan, are five chains of local transmission that need to be closely monitored.

Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said it is now difficult to clearly determine the number of transmission chains with unknown infection sources, as community infection has spread to several cities and counties.

The current focus of contact tracing is to contain the virus’ spread, rather than tracing their possible source of infection, he said, adding that most of the local transmission chains are infected with the Omicron BA.2 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2.

Chen said that contact tracing would become increasingly difficult if case numbers continue to surge.

Better technology methods must be used to simplify the precise contact tracing, rapid and polymerase chain reaction tests must both be conducted and case classification is very important to preserve healthcare capacity, he added.

As of Tuesday, the booster dose vaccination rate had reached 51.01 percent, he said.

As people visiting special recreational venues with escort services are required to receive the booster dose, he said it is likely that the booster dose vaccination status would be required in more types of venues in the near future.

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