TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The wife of a fruit farmer in Pingtung County died from the Delta variant of COVID on Wednesday (July 21), marking the first death from the strain in Taiwan.

Pingtung Public Health Bureau chief Shih Cheng-kuei (施丞貴) said that the deceased woman, 72, had been diagnosed on June 29, becoming COVID case No. 14,816, and been placed in a negative pressure isolation room in a hospital, CNA reported. The woman had hypertension and diabetes.



As her condition did not improve during treatment, she had to be intubated. She died on Wednesday afternoon, according to Shih.

The Delta variant was first detected in a cluster infection in the county’s Fangshan Township in June but later spread to neighboring Fangliao Township.

The country has confirmed a total of 17 cases of infection by the Delta variant, which was first identified in India and is becoming the dominant strain worldwide. Of the 17 cases in Pingtung, 15 cases stemmed from the cluster infection in Fangshan, and the other two were the Fangliao fruit farmer and his wife, per CNA.

The Central Epidemic Command Center highly suspects that the Fangliao woman got the disease from case No. 14,407, a woman who was part of the cluster infection in Fangshan, as they were both hospitalized in Fangliao General Hospital at about the same time.