Rationale, aims and objectives: The purpose of this study is to describe the symptoms and clusters characteristics of COVID-19 patients in Taiwan. Method: The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) from Taiwan CDC daily press release publications were extracted for patient demographic information (age, gender, case type and cluster) and the symptoms exhibited by the patients before diagnosis were collected. Results: A total of 1030 COVID-19 cases were reported in Taiwan up until the end of March 2021, of which 1009 patients had symptoms available. Of available patient data, 633 patients (62.74%) were symptomatic and 376 patients (37.26%) were asymptomatic, as classified in our study based on the published list of potential symptoms of COVID-19 by WHO. The most prevalent symptoms of our patients were coughing (29.33%), fever (26.56%) and nasal symptoms (20.22%). Our regression analysis found when the first detected patient of the cluster had a subjective sensation of feeling feverish, the number of infected cases in the cluster increased by 4.59 cases. Similarly, patients who experienced a slightly elevated body temperature or fever were associated with an increase of 2.37 and 0.35 cases in each cluster, respectively. Furthermore, increasing one new COVID-19 test per thousand population reduces 7.22 cases per cluster. Conclusions: The majority of reported cases in Taiwan were symptomatic. Symptoms which had the greatest number of patients overall were cough, fever, and nasal symptoms. It is our hope to help physicians to better diagnose current Taiwan COVID-19 patients, while aiding the government in stopping the spread of new cases.

China has just lifted its zero-Covid policy and made it more relaxed, which suggests the end of zero-Covid globally. Vietnam is one of a few countries that implemented zero-Covid at the very beginning, yet we decided to abandon it much sooner. Consequently, a spike in cases followed just after this opening. Healthcare workers (HCW)—the frontliners—are the most harmed and vulnerable, both physically and psychologically. HCW have been playing a vital role in a successful response against multiple Covid-19 pandemics, and patient safety will obviously be in jeopardy when the well-being of HCW is neglected. Nevertheless, literature has reported the anticipated repercussions of Covid-19 on HCW, especially on their mental health and well-being, mostly due to the shortage of resources and equipment, intense work hours, and lack of support for mental health. In this paper, we report on the burden of Vietnamese HCW during the fourth wave of the pandemic, raise awareness among both the community and the authorities, and also deliver feasible solutions adapted from Vietnam. These insights can also be learned by other countries and modified based on local circumstances to help better deal with future outbreaks.