Taiwan sees 13 new domestic COVID cases on Aug. 29 after two days of zero new cases. 10 of the 13 were part of a family cluster infection in New Taipei City's Sanxia. Health officials say 9 out of the 10 patients had a Ct value of over 30, which means they were incapable to infect others. Experts say what is most worrying is how many people the family man has spread the virus to before being diagnosed.
Ten of the 13 new COVID-19 cases reported on Aug. 29 were part of a family cluster infection in Sanxia. According to health officials, one of the 10 had a Ct value of 29 and the other nine had Ct values of over 30. Although this means they are probably not contagious, many are still worried.
Lee Ping-ing, Advisor, Central Epidemic Command Center:” This cluster infection case tells us that there is still a risk of invisible links in the transmission chain in Taiwan. Although we have had several days where the number of new cases was zero, everyone should still be on high alert. COVID-19 may still be silently lurking in our communities.”
Experts say what is most worrying is how many people the family may have infected before testing positive. At the same time, they say Taiwan's mandatory quarantine and other measures must be effective since Taiwan has not seen a spike in the Alpha variant.
Meanwhile, a 50-plus woman who recently returned to Taiwan from China tested positive while in quarantine on Aug. 29. The woman had already had three doses of China's new three-shot Zhifei vaccine.
Wang Jen-hsien, Chair, Infectious Diseases Society of Taiwan:” Breakthrough infections are one of the most common types of infection after vaccination. It isn't any wonder you see this with this kind of protein subunit vaccine that you paid out of pocket for.”
Zen Lin, Chair, ROC Primary Care Association:” [Breakthrough infections] can happen with Chinese vaccines, or BNT or Moderna or AZ. Chinese vaccines, however, may not be as clinically effective as Moderna, BNT, or AZ.”
One doctor says there is around a one in 10,000 chance of a breakthrough infection after getting two BNT doses. This case indicates that breakthrough infections are likely all other vaccines. Therefore, everyone still needs to be careful no matter how many shots they've had.
本土新冠疫情29號一口氣新增了13例，其中在新北市三峽的家庭群聚就多達10人確診，根據衛生局的掌握，這家人除了一位的Ct值是29，其他9人都超過30，研判應該不具傳染力，外界還是擔心新冠病毒是否仍會存在社區。
中央流行疫情指揮中心專家小組諮詢委員 李秉穎：「這個群聚的案件是告訴我們說，台灣還是有隱形傳染鏈的風險，雖然我們有幾天個位數甚至歸零，但是這段時間，大家還是要加強防範新冠病毒，在我們的社區裡面，可能還有一些病毒的一個潛伏。」
醫師表示，Ct值高比較要擔心的是，這些個案在確診前，已經在社區活動不知情的傳播病毒，但目前看起來國內主要的英國變異株沒有大規模流行趨勢，顯示居家隔離等防疫措施仍有效控制，另外，29號1例自中國返台的本國籍50多歲女性，入境前已完整接種3劑中國智飛疫苗，但在檢疫期間仍出現症狀採檢確診，也引發關注。
防疫學會理事長 王任賢：「突破性感染是接種過疫苗以後，再產生的感染中最常見的一種，叫做突破性感染，那自費疫苗它這種次單位的蛋白疫苗，所以它當然也有可能產生。」
基層醫療協會理事長 林應然：「不管是中國的疫苗，或者是BNT莫德納或是AZ疫苗，都可能產生這種現象(突破性感染)，只不過打中國的疫苗，事實上它的臨床效果，可能不比這些莫德納、BNT、AZ效果好。」
醫師表示，依據美國的經驗，BNT接種過兩劑以後，突破性感染的機會大概是萬分之一，所以其他的疫苗當然也有可能，顯示民眾打完疫苗後防疫措施也不能鬆懈。