On February 17, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced one new confirmed imported case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Taiwan. This new case, Case #939, is a Taiwanese woman in her 50s. She lived in the United States for an extended period of time. She tested positive for COVID-19 in the United States on October 21, 2020. She was later tested for COVID-19 twice on November 14 and November 18, respectively; both of the test results came back negative.

The Taiwanese woman then returned to Taiwan from the United States to visit her relatives on November 27. She hasn’t developed any symptoms since arrival. As she planned to leave Taiwan again, she visited the hospital to take a self-paid test on February 15, 2021. Infection with COVID-19 was laboratory-confirmed in the case on February 17 (the Ct value was 35; she was given a COVID-19 RT-PCR test again the next day, and the test result came back negative; she tested positive for IgM and IgG antibodies).

The CECC reported that a cumulative total of 168,862 cases related to COVID-19 have been reported in Taiwan among which COVID-19 has been ruled out in 166,357. Of these reported cases, infection with COVID-19 was laboratory-confirmed in 938 cases. Of the 938 confirmed cases, 822 are imported; 77 are indigenous; 36 are naval crew members aboard the Panshi fast combat support ship; 2 are infections on an aircraft; 1 case has unknown sources of infection; and 1 case (Case #530) has been removed (Case #530 is not assigned to any patients). Of the confirmed cases, there have been 9 deaths, and 879 patients have been released from isolation, with the other 50 patients remaining hospitalized in isolation