On February 26, 2020, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) reported the 32nd confirmed case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The patient is a female caregiver in her 30s who temporarily provided care to Case #27 in the hospital from February 11 to February 16. Health agencies had been working with national police agencies to search for the caregiver after Case #27 had tested positive. The agencies found the patient, and placed her under quarantine in the hospital for lab tests in the evening of February 24. The patient had mild throat discomfort when she was found, and tested positive on February 26.

As Case #32 is a temporary caregiver, health agencies had launched an investigation into the patient’s activities from February 16 through 24, and identified other patients the case-patient took care of, patients sharing the same hospital ward and their caregivers during the period as contacts to have these contacts tested for COVID-19, the CECC stated. 

The CECC indicated that with respect to the cluster linked to Case #27, a total of 744 contacts had been established, of which 153 had tested. Of 153, five individuals tested positive (Cases #28, #29, #30, #31 and #32), and 141 tested negative, with the remainder awaiting results.