Focus Taiwan
Date: 09/23/2020
By: Chang Ming-hsuan,
Chen Wei-ting and Matthew Mazzetta

Taipei, Sept. 23 (CNA) A recent study carried out by the Changhua County government, which involved testing people for COVID-19 antibodies, was found to have violated public health policies but will not result in disciplinary action, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said Wednesday.

At the CECC's weekly press briefing, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said that was the conclusion reached after an ethics investigation into the Changhua County Public Health Bureau.

The investigation was launched after the county's health authorities embarked on a COVID-19 study, in which they tested 4,800 people between June and August for antibodies produced by the human body following exposure to COVID-19.

The CECC, which had objected to the study from the start, said the investigation found that the Changhua health bureau had flouted national epidemic prevention policies by testing people in home quarantine who did not have COVID-19 symptoms and by asking them to break quarantine, as they had to leave their homes to get the tests.    [FULL  STORY]