Response And Control Measures to A COVID-19 Case in A Long-Term Care Facility-Northern Region, Taiwan, March 2020

On March 21, 2020, the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) confirmed the first Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) case in a long-term care facility in Taiwan. To understand the scale of infection immediately, mandated by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), Taiwan CDC, the local health bureau and two designated hospitals collaboratively sampled all of the 81 residents and staff of the facility for COVID-19 RT-PCR test the same night. The designated laboratories completed the tests within 6 hours and the results were all negative. CECC held an emergency meeting on March 22 morning and decided to relocate the residents, staff and caregivers to two separate institutions. Quarantine, disinfection and infection control measures were set up properly. Public health officers identified and traced 142 contacts, of whom 100 were tested and all were negative for COVID-19. By the end of monitoring period on April 3, no new case was identified and a community spread was successfully blocked.