Taipei-The 14 new domestic COVID-19 cases confirmed in Taiwan on Sunday are all linked to previously reported clusters of the disease, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).

The new cases were “relatively simple,” as all but one tested positive during quarantine, CECC spokesperson Chuang Jen-hsiang (???) said.

Seven of the new cases are employees of an Askey Computer Corp. factory located in the Farglory Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in Taoyuan, Chuang said.

The cluster at the FTZ, which is linked to the larger outbreak in Taoyuan which began in early January, has recorded 158 cases to date, CECC data shows.

Another four cases are linked to a cluster at the Port of Kaohsiung, bringing the number of cases there to 125. The cluster is suspected to have started with a maintenance worker at the port who came into contact with people on board a Sierra Leone-flagged vessel.

The three remaining cases are all New Taipei residents, each one related to different clusters, Chuang said.

One case is connected to a cluster at Re-Yi Distribution Service Co., a logistics company based in Taoyuan that has reported 30 COVID-19 cases in the past week, Chuang said.

Another one of the cases is linked to a cluster centered around a family in Taipei and the other to a cluster involving an Yilan County hotel and a Kaohsiung preschool, Chuang said.

These clusters all involve the Omicron variant, according to the CECC.

Of the new domestic cases, five were fully vaccinated, two had received no vaccine jabs, and the vaccination status of the remaining seven is still under investigation, according to the CECC.

In addition to the domestic cases, Taiwan also reported 29 imported cases on Sunday. Of these, 12 tested positive upon arrival in the country on Saturday, and the other 17 tested positive during quarantine.

The CECC did not release any information regarding the vaccination status of the imported cases.

Meanwhile, both Taoyuan and Kaohsiung announced Saturday that preschools in the two cities will postpone the start of the spring semester until Feb. 14.

Elementary schools, junior high schools, and senior high schools in Taoyuan and Kaohsiung will begin the new semester as originally scheduled on Feb. 11.

In the rest of the country, schools at the senior high school level and below will also begin the semester on Feb. 11, according to the Ministry of Education.

To date, Taiwan has confirmed 19,144 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began in early 2020, including 15,197 domestically transmitted infections.

With no deaths reported on Sunday, the number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths in the country remains at 851.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel