TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Friday (Nov. 19) reported the first case of a breakthrough infection in a person who had received three doses of China's COVID vaccines.
A breakthrough infection is defined as a person who has tested positive for COVID-19 at least 14 days after completing the full vaccine schedule. During a press conference that afternoon, a reporter asked whether the CECC could confirm if the imported case from Cambodia had received three doses of Chinese-made vaccines.
Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, confirmed that this was the first breakthrough case reported in Taiwan following three doses of a Chinese-made vaccine. The individual was identified as case No. 16,618, a Taiwanese man in his 20s who returned from Cambodia on Nov. 5.
Lo said that all three jabs were done in Cambodia. He received his first dose of Sinovac in April and a second dose of the vaccine in May.
According to Lo, the man then received one dose of Sinopharm in mid-October, marking his third dose overall. Lo explained that Cambodia began providing booster shots in August and because most of their vaccines are imported from China, the third dose is typically a Chinese brand.
Before the end of his quarantine, the man was tested for the virus on Nov. 17 and diagnosed with COVID on Nov. 19. Case No. 16,618 is currently asymptomatic, and as he did not interact with any other people during quarantine, no contacts have been listed in his case.
Lo pointed out the man's Ct value was quite high at 37, and therefore difficult to estimate exactly when the man contracted the virus. He stated that although Taiwan had previously reported a case of a breakthrough infection in a person who had received one dose each of China's Sinovac and Sinopharm, this was the first breakthrough case in an individual who had received three Chinese vaccine doses.
