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Analysis of Imported Cases of COVID-19 in Taiwan: A Nationwide Study

In the early stages of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, containment of disease importation from epidemic areas was essential for outbreak control. This study is based on publicly accessible data on confirmed COVID-19 cases in Taiwan extracted from the Taiwan Centers for Diseas...

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Autores principales: Liu, Jui-Yao, Chen, Tzeng-Ji, Hwang, Shinn-Jang
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7246949/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32397515
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17093311
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author Liu, Jui-Yao
Chen, Tzeng-Ji
Hwang, Shinn-Jang
author_facet Liu, Jui-Yao
Chen, Tzeng-Ji
Hwang, Shinn-Jang
author_sort Liu, Jui-Yao
collection PubMed
description In the early stages of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, containment of disease importation from epidemic areas was essential for outbreak control. This study is based on publicly accessible data on confirmed COVID-19 cases in Taiwan extracted from the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control website. We analysed the characteristics, infection source, symptom presentation, and route of identification of the 321 imported cases that were identified from 21 January to 6 April 2020. They were mostly returned Taiwanese citizens who had travelled to one or more of 37 countries for tourism, business, work, or study. Half of these cases developed symptoms before arrival, most of the remainder developed symptoms 1–13 days (mean 4.0 days) after arrival, and 3.4% never developed symptoms. Three-quarters of the cases had respiratory symptoms, 44.9% had fever, 13.1% lost smell or taste, and 7.2% had diarrhoea. Body temperature and symptom screening at airports identified 32.7% of the cases. Of the remainder, 27.7% were identified during home quarantining, 16.2% were identified via contact tracing, and 23.4% were reported by hospitals. Under the strict enforcement of these measures, the incidence of locally acquired COVID-19 cases in Taiwan remains sporadic. In conclusion, proactive border control measures are effective for preventing community transmission of this disease.
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spelling pubmed-72469492020-06-02 Analysis of Imported Cases of COVID-19 in Taiwan: A Nationwide Study Liu, Jui-Yao Chen, Tzeng-Ji Hwang, Shinn-Jang Int J Environ Res Public Health Article In the early stages of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, containment of disease importation from epidemic areas was essential for outbreak control. This study is based on publicly accessible data on confirmed COVID-19 cases in Taiwan extracted from the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control website. We analysed the characteristics, infection source, symptom presentation, and route of identification of the 321 imported cases that were identified from 21 January to 6 April 2020. They were mostly returned Taiwanese citizens who had travelled to one or more of 37 countries for tourism, business, work, or study. Half of these cases developed symptoms before arrival, most of the remainder developed symptoms 1–13 days (mean 4.0 days) after arrival, and 3.4% never developed symptoms. Three-quarters of the cases had respiratory symptoms, 44.9% had fever, 13.1% lost smell or taste, and 7.2% had diarrhoea. Body temperature and symptom screening at airports identified 32.7% of the cases. Of the remainder, 27.7% were identified during home quarantining, 16.2% were identified via contact tracing, and 23.4% were reported by hospitals. Under the strict enforcement of these measures, the incidence of locally acquired COVID-19 cases in Taiwan remains sporadic. In conclusion, proactive border control measures are effective for preventing community transmission of this disease. MDPI 2020-05-09 2020-05 /pmc/articles/PMC7246949/ /pubmed/32397515 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17093311 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Liu, Jui-Yao
Chen, Tzeng-Ji
Hwang, Shinn-Jang
Analysis of Imported Cases of COVID-19 in Taiwan: A Nationwide Study
title Analysis of Imported Cases of COVID-19 in Taiwan: A Nationwide Study
title_full Analysis of Imported Cases of COVID-19 in Taiwan: A Nationwide Study
title_fullStr Analysis of Imported Cases of COVID-19 in Taiwan: A Nationwide Study
title_full_unstemmed Analysis of Imported Cases of COVID-19 in Taiwan: A Nationwide Study
title_short Analysis of Imported Cases of COVID-19 in Taiwan: A Nationwide Study
title_sort analysis of imported cases of covid-19 in taiwan: a nationwide study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7246949/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32397515
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17093311
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