Taiwan reported 22 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, almost all of them sailors who had been on a friendly visit of Taiwanese navy ships to the small Pacific island state of Palau last month.
Taiwan has to date been relatively successful at controlling the coronavirus due to early prevention and detection, and last week celebrated three days in which no new cases were reported.
But on Saturday Taiwan said that three cadets who had been part of the mission to Palau, one of only 15 countries to maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, had been infected, and that 700 sailors were being quarantined and tested.
The 21 sailors whose positive tests the government announced on Sunday bring the total cases in the navy to 24.