Taiwan reported one additional case of COVID-19 on May 21, bringing the total to 441. The patient had traveled to Mexico and returned to Taiwan on May 20. He was sent to a centralized quarantine center as soon as he arrived at the airport, and did not come into contact with anyone. Meanwhile, the Central Epidemic Command Center announced the antibody test results for sailors from the Navy's Panshih supplier ship on May 21. Those additional eight sailors had positive antibody tests, meaning that it's likely they were previously infected and should be included on the list of "extremely possible cases.


A COVID-19 cluster outbreak occurred aboard the Navy's Panshih support ship in April. So far, 36 sailors have been confirmed to be infected. On May 21, the Central Epidemic Command Center said an additional eight sailors had positive antibody tests, meaning that it's likely they were previously infected and should be included on the list of "extremely possible cases." Domestic experts say perhaps the number of infected sailors is even higher and there were at least two waves of infection if not more. Moreover, the government's failure to speedily test the sailors for antibodies means that it will be harder to pinpoint the source of the infection.

It must have been someone bringing it onto the ship from Taiwan or someone bringing it onto the ship from Palau. Both these periods were about one month. There's no way that there was only one wave of infection in one month, there must have been at least two to four waves in the one month.

Infectious Diseases Society of Taiwan Chairperson Huang Li-min also said that the sailors were placed in isolation and more than one month has passed. The risk of community transmission should not be too high. Meanwhile, a new American study has reported that an antibody called "S309" has been found in the blood of people previously infected with SARS. This antibody is capable of inhibiting and deactivating the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. In the future, it will be tried out as a treatment.

Parts of their structures are very similar, so if you happen to have an antibody that can inhibit this part, then it will be effective against the 2003 coronavirus as well as the novel coronavirus.

Huang added the results of this study may help the development of drugs to treat COVID-19. However, people need to continue practicing good hygiene such as washing hands frequently and wearing masks as safe and effective treatments and vaccines have not yet been developed.



海軍敦睦艦隊磐石艦、日前爆發武漢肺炎群聚感染，除了36名確診病例外，疫情指揮中心表示，有另外8名官兵也驗出抗體陽性，代表可能曾經感染過，被列入「極可能病例」。對此，國內專家認為，艦上感染人數恐怕更多，而且傳播絕對超過2波以上，因採檢抗體時間太晚，現在難以釐清感染源。

台灣感染症醫學會理事長 黃立民表示：「一定是有人從台灣就帶病毒上船，或是有人從帛琉帶病毒上船，這段時間都是差不多一個月左右，一個月不可能只傳一波的嘛，一個月一定要傳2到4波嘛。」

不過黃立民表示，這些官兵都已解除隔離，時間也超過1個多月，社區傳播風險應該不大；此外美國最新研究發現，在過去SARS患者的血液樣本中，找到一種名為「S309」的抗體，可以抑制引發武漢肺炎的新型冠狀病毒，使病毒失去活性，未來將嘗試用來治療重症患者。

台灣感染症醫學會理事長 黃立民表示：「它們有一些地方的結構呢，會非常的像，那如果你剛好有個抗體，可以對抗到這個地方的話呢，它就會對2003的冠狀病毒有效，對目前的新冠(病毒)也有效。」

黃立民強調，美國這項新發現，將有助於未來治療武漢肺炎藥物的開發，但是在安全且有效藥物及疫苗上市前，還是要提醒民眾勤洗手、戴口罩，對於疫情、不可以掉以輕心。