Kaohsiung, Sept. 22 (CNA) A woman in Kaohsiung who recently returned from China has been found dead while in home quarantine, the local health authority said Tuesday, ruling out foul play as the cause of death.

Huang Chih-chung, director-general of the city's Department of Health, said the Taiwanese woman, in her 40s, was put under home quarantine after she arrived at Kaohsiung International Airport from Shanghai on Sept. 16.

However, she was found dead Monday afternoon at her home in the city's Linyuan District, Huang said.

The woman had called a garbage collection service but failed to open the door when the garbage collector came, according to Huang.

Local officials were later informed and broke into the residence, where her body was found, he explained.

An initial examination ruled out the possibility of foul play, the director-general said, noting that the case has since been handed over to Kaohsiung prosecutors for further investigation.

Although the cause of the woman's death has yet to be determined, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) that day said specimens taken from the woman's body to test for COVID-19 suggest her death was not related to the disease.

The results came back negative, CECC spokesman Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said at a press briefing in Taipei Tuesday, explaining that the test was conducted as a safety precaution in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic.