NTU professor says Belgian case most likely infected in Taipei in June
台大教授說比利時病例最有可能是六月時在台北染疫
| Taiwan public health professor believes Belgian engineer contracted coronavirus from undetected imported patient
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — National Taiwan University (NTU) Public Health professor Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said Tuesday (Aug. 4) that the Belgian engineer with a mysterious COVID-19 infection most likely contracted the disease while visiting Taipei in June. During a regular news conference, Chen pointed out that the Belgian patient's most contagious period is speculated to have fallen between June 20-26 based on the time of the diagnosis and the viral load. He said the patient was in the country's capital during that period;?therefore, tracing all his Taipei contacts is very important. According to Chen, there are four possible explanations of how the Belgian engineer was infected: an undetected imported case, an undetected local case, an infection source outside of Taiwan, and re-infection after arriving in Taiwan. Of the four possibilities, Chen said being infected by an unknown imported case is the most likely since the patient had frequent contact with foreigners, which is a view Chen presumably based on the fact that some tiny percentage of foreigners in the country?have undertaken recent travel abroad, though this is also true of Taiwanese. He also said it is almost impossible that the patient was infected before entering Taiwan or re-infected after his arrival, reported UDN. The NTU professor stressed that asymptomatic patients account for approximately half of the infections worldwide and that they are undetectable unless through virus testing. He also said it takes longer for the virus to leave the system of an asymptomatic individual, 15 to 26 days on average, than someone experiencing clear symptoms. Chen said he is certain there are some undetected asymptomatic patients in Taiwan, but the public should not panic since they are only infectious in extremely close proximity. However, he still urged the Taiwanese to wear masks in public and respect social distancing to avoid potential risks, reported Liberty Times. |
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| Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer | |
| 2020-08-04 |
