This week Taiwan saw a cluster infection of 27 cases aboard the Panshih navy ship. National Taiwan University’s College of Public Health explained on Tuesday how Taiwan should deal with this outbreak.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt had over 600 cases, A French aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, had over 1,000 infections. And then there was the Diamond Princess cruise ship. Now a cluster infection on a Taiwan navy vessel.
The head of National Taiwan University’s College of Public Health has three suggestions.
First: Increase Contact Tracing. Professor Chan says the contacts of the people on the boat must be traced to a week before they boarded.
Second: Lengthen Monitoring Period. Close contacts of confirmed cases should be quarantined for 14 days and monitored for an additional 14 days.
Third: Increase Antibody Testing. The US and Germany have increased testing of asymptomatic people. Chan says it’s not like the first stage where you just try to limit the number of infections. Now if you can learn more about the population, it will be useful for treating the virus and creating vaccines.
Chan says Taiwan needs to get ready for the next stage of prevention. He says the nation’s military also needs to be vigilant about reporting new cases, considering the close nature of their work.