PublishTime：2020-03-08

On March 8, the Central Epidemic Command Center reported details about a cluster of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection on a Nile River cruise boat. A research team at the National Taiwan University, College of Medicine discovered that there is a significant difference between the genome sequence of the strain of virus isolated from Case #39’s specimen and the sequences from Taiwanese patients and that the strain of virus from Case #39 belongs to the same clade of the strains of virus in Europe, Nigeria, Brazil and Italy. The study showed that Case #39 is only an index patient who was first diagnosed with COVID-19 but not the source of infection. It is determined that Case #39 contracted the novel coronavirus in Egypt, and developed symptoms after returning to Taiwan and that this is an imported case.