TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Keelung City Mayor Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) will isolate for three days after a police officer he had given an award to was confirmed as a COVID-19 case Friday (March 25).

The mayor of the harbor city took part in a banquet and awards ceremony Thursday (March 24) evening, the Liberty Times reported. During the event, Lin handed an award to a police officer who was announced Friday as a new local COVID infection.

Even though the two interacted for only a short time to take a picture with the award together, Lin said that after consultation with officials he had decided to stay in isolation for three days.

He had already taken one PCR test and would submit to another at the end of his quarantine period, he said. The mayor called Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) chief Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) Friday morning to discuss his condition.

At the core of the Keelung COVID cluster was a woman in her 40s who developed a cough and a fever on March 24. She went to undergo testing at a hospital in the company of a police officer friend, who also turned out positive despite showing no symptoms of COVID. Another friend was also named as a coronavirus case, the Liberty Times reported.