Taiwan has reported three more cases in connection with an outbreak among China Airlines pilots. One is a cargo pilot, and another is a pilot''s wife. The third is an employee at the Novotel Taipei Taoyuan International Airport, a quarantine hotel where many confirmed cases had stayed. This employee is currently in intensive care with severe pneumonia. Novotel Taipei closed for disinfection on Thursday, transferring more than 400 people, including China Airlines pilots, to quarantine centers for isolation.

Novotel Taipei Taoyuan International Airport closed for disinfection on Thursday, after an employee tested positive for COVID.

Health minister Chen Shih-chung was on-site that morning as guests were transferred to centralized quarantine centers.

A total of 412 people were relocated, including hotel staff, China Airlines pilots, and guests. They were distributed across six quarantine facilities. At their original hotel, 39 samples were collected for expedited testing.

Chen Shih-chung
Health minister
The hotel employee may have been infected in the second wave. His situation might be the same as that of the pilots, in that he acquired the infection later on. He may have been infected by person-to-person contact, whereas the pilots may have picked up the virus from the environment. With these considerations in mind, we decided to clear out the hotel.

The new case is Taiwan''s first quarantine hotel employee to test positive. This employee had sought medical care three times in a week, and is now in intensive care.

Chen Shih-chung
Health minister
They were a bit slow in sending out the test. By the time he was hospitalized, he had already developed pneumonia.

This hotel employee, Case #1,120, was one of three infections announced on Thursday in connection to the China Airlines outbreak. The others were Case #1,121, the wife of a diagnosed pilot, and Case #1,122, a cargo pilot in his 50s.

Chen also announced that another undiagnosed pilot had tested positive for COVID antibodies. This pilot is the father of a confirmed case, a student at Kang Chiao International School in New Taipei''s Linkou District.

Chen Chih-chung
Health minister
The man flew back to Taiwan last night, or the night before. Antibody tests yielded a positive, but PCR tests were negative.

Three schools in Northern Taiwan have taken action, after the parents of their students tested positive for COVID antibodies. Linkou''s Kang Chiao International School has moved to online teaching for a week. Taoyuan''s Ximen Elementary School has suspended classes for two days, because one infected pilot had gone to the school to pick up her child. Taoyuan''s Jinxing Elementary School is continuing on with classes, but it''s canceled large-scale activities.