CORONAVIRUS/Contacts of 6 COVID-19 patients who traveled from Taiwan test negative

Taipei, Sept. 19 (CNA) The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said Saturday that it has found no COVID-19 infections in Taiwan among the 122 contacts of six Filipinos who tested positive for the disease after departing Taiwan in recent weeks.

The six Filipino migrant workers -- five women and one man -- left Taiwan between Aug. 28 and Sept. 11 and tested positive upon arrival in the Philippines, according to a statement by the CECC earlier in the week.

The CECC said it set about tracing their contacts in Taiwan after it learned about two of the cases via their Taiwanese employers and about the other four through the National IHR Focal Point, which is a communication channel set up under the World Health Organization's International Health Regulations.

After identifying 122 contacts in Taiwan, the CECC said, it carried out both PCR and blood tests on them, testing for the virus or antibodies, and all of the tests were negative, CECC spokesman Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said at a press conference in Taipei.

Meanwhile, the CECC is waiting for Philippine health authorities to provide the cycle threshold (CT) values of the PCR tests of the six Philippine nationals, Chuang said.

"We have asked the Philippines if the CT values found in the tests had any issues, but they have not yet replied to us on that matter," he said.

To date, Taiwan has recorded 506 cases of COVID-19, with 414 classified as imported. Of the total, 479 have recovered, seven have died, and 20 are in the hospital, according to the CECC.

The last time Taiwan recorded a domestic infection was April 12, according to CECC data.