Taipei, April 30 (CNA) A website that will allow people infected with COVID-19 to provide necessary contact tracing information will be launched on Sunday, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).
The new website was first announced by the CECC on April 25, when streamlined contact tracing procedures were introduced amid a major spike in confirmed COVID-19 cases that overwhelmed government employees. local authorities as they attempted to verify contacts of new cases.
With local governments unable to keep pace, the CECC limited the group of contacts to be verified to cohabitants, classmates and co-workers, and reduced the investigation period to four days before a patient tested positive. or has symptoms at two days.
Update
May 7: Quarantine reduced to 7 days for mild, asymptomatic cases of COVID-19: CECC
May 7: Taiwan rescinds quarantine rules for contacts of COVID-19 patients
May 5: Positive rapid tests will be counted as confirmed COVID cases from May 12
From Sunday, people who test positive for COVID-19 using a PCR test will receive a text message on their mobile phone from the number 0911514588.
The message will ask them to visit https://bbs.cdc.gov.tw and submit the necessary information to trace contacts and notify their school or workplace of their infection, said CECC spokesperson Chuang Jen. -hsiang (莊人祥) at Saturday’s CECC press. Report.
Other required information includes the status of people who have tested positive for COVID-19, such as when they started experiencing symptoms, whether they are pregnant and whether they are on kidney dialysis, Chuang said.
Information submitted via the website will be used to contact the school or workplace so that the CECC can list contacts and notify them when they need to undergo a “3+4” quarantine, Chuang said.
The “3+4” quarantine, also announced on Monday and launched the next day, consists of three days of home isolation and four days of medical self-monitoring.
During the four days of monitoring their health, listed contacts can go to work, buy basic necessities and take public transport, but they are prohibited from going to school, dining at restaurants and to attend rallies.
To be able to do these things, however, contacts must test negative for COVID-19 once a day using a rapid test to be able to go out at any time of the day, which means that they must take four rapid tests during the self-health surveillance period if they wish to go out every day.
This may be a problem at present due to a shortage of rapid test kits. Adults identified as contacts only receive three rapid tests when entering “3+4” quarantine and children only receive two, and one must be used before the first day of isolation.
Since the introduction of simplified contact tracing measures, New Taipei, Taipei and Taoyuan have set up their own online reporting systems for confirmed cases to provide information, such as who they live with, their school or their place of work and people with whom they have had close relationships. Contact.
New Taipei reported the highest daily number of new COVID-19s in April, when Taiwan saw locally transmitted infections jump from 104 on April 1 to 15,033 on Saturday, often followed by neighbors Taipei and Taoyuan.
On Thursday, when New Taipei launched its online contact tracing site, Chen Ran-chou (陳潤秋), head of the city’s health department, said the city government was no longer able to call each confirmed case to conduct contact tracing.
On the first day the city’s online contact tracing system went live, New Taipei reported 4,552 new cases and sent 3,800 messages to confirmed cases, of which more than 2,000 submitted required information, Chen said during a press briefing this afternoon.
On Saturday, however, New Taipei and Taipei were both advising their residents to use the central government system once it is up and running.
Taiwan reported 15,033 new domestic cases on Saturday, the third consecutive day the one-day total topped 10,000, with 5,797 of those new cases in New Taipei, followed by Taipei with 3,099 and Taoyuan with 2,193 .
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