Taiwan reports 78 new COVID-19 cases

TAIPEI, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan reported six new locally-transmitted cases of COVID-19 and 72 imported cases on Saturday, the island's disease monitoring agency said.

The new local infections were all linked to a steakhouse in Chungli District, Taoyuan City, the agency added.

A COVID-19 outbreak occurred at the Taoyuan International Airport in early January. As of Saturday afternoon, 72 people, including airport cleaning personnel, a singing social club's members, bank clerks and restaurant employees, had tested positive for COVID-19.

To date, Taiwan has confirmed 17,769 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began in early 2020. A total of 14,682 cases are local infections.