Ten local cases of COVID were reported Sunday, all coming from Taoyuan. Of the ten, six had contracted COVID on Jan. 9 while dining at a steakhouse. Local cases over this past week included the restaurant''s employees and customers. Meanwhile, two junior high students, who confirmed positive on Sunday, go to the same school as case 17,774, who is a part-time server at the restaurant. Another student''s parent also tested positive. Let''s hear from the health minister.

Chen Shih-chung
CECC commander
For case 17774, we’ve looked into her school and campus. During the first round of tests, we found two of her classmates infected. Now we’ve found another classmate, case 17935, who is from the same school and from a different class. So we’re still doing contact tracing for case 17774. In addition, case 17774 has a cousin, case 17880, who attends Dongxing Junior High. Now her school has another infected student, case 17930, who is not in the same class as her. The school is currently closed, and the contact tracing is continuing.

The tenth case of the day is an airport quarantine officer whose job is to test arriving travelers. The patient''s PCR test on Jan. 9 and rapid testing on Jan. 14 both came out negative, but a positive PCR test result came out on Saturday. Minister Chen said the officer only started the job last month. Since omicron is highly transmissible, she probably contracted the virus while on duty due to negligence.