The Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday raised the travel advisories for Japan and South Korea to a level 2 “alert” — “practice enhanced precautions” — after rapidly rising numbers of locally transmitted COVID-19 infections were reported.
Japan has 110 confirmed cases spread over 14 prefectures, while South Korea has 346 confirmed cases, the center said, adding that more than 70 percent of cases in both countries are suspected of being locally transmitted with an unknown source of infection, and clusters of healthcare-associated infections have been reported.
As the two countries are popular destinations among Taiwanese, the center has decided to elevate the travel advisories, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said, adding that additional border controls might be imposed if the epidemic situations deteriorate.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Travel to Japan or South Korea in the previous 30 days would also be flagged in the National Health Insurance (NHI) information of returning Taiwanese, said Chen, who heads the center.
Separately yesterday, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said in a statement that Taiwan’s disease situation does not fulfill the definitions for community spread, adding that the ministry has fully explained the nation’s situation to the US.
Ou’s remarks came after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) earlier this week listed Taiwan as one of many “destinations with apparent community spread” of COVID-19, prompting a request from the ministry on Thursday for the CDC to correct Taiwan’s status.
The US replied that it understands the nation’s concern and hopes that Taiwan will provide more information to facilitate its evaluation, Ou said yesterday.
As of press time last night, no new confirmed COVID-19 cases had been reported in Taiwan yesterday.
An investigation into people who came into contact with the nation’s 24th case — a woman in her 60s living in northern Taiwan who has not traveled abroad in two years — is still in progress, Chen said.
The center was originally worried about healthcare-associated infections, because the woman was not sent to an isolation ward when she was first diagnosed with pneumonia, but COVID-19 tests on 134 healthcare practitioners who had close contact with her were all negative, he said.
The center expanded the investigation to include 465 people who had close contact with the woman. Among the 181 people who have been tested, her granddaughter and daughter were on Friday confirmed as the nation’s 25th and 26th cases.
Regarding a contact investigation for the nation’s 19th confirmed case, a 61-year-old man who was the nation’s first COVID-19 fatality, Chen said that 256 people have been tested for the coronavirus.
Four people — the man’s relatives and the nation’s 20th to 23rd cases — tested positive, while all others had negative results, he said.
The center considers the cluster of cases related to the fatality “case closed,” he added.
Meanwhile, the National Health Insurance Administration announced that the age limit to buy masks for children with an NHI card has been increased from 12 to 13 years.
Starting yesterday, children’s masks can be purchased at pharmacies for children born in 2007 and later, it said.
Additional reporting by Lin Chia-nan
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
BIG YEAR: The company said it would also release its A12 chip the same year to keep a ‘reliable stream of new silicon technologies’ flowing to its customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its newest A13 chip is to enter volume production in 2029 as the chipmaker seeks to hold onto its tech leadership and demand for next-generation chips used in artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance-computing (HPC) and mobile applications. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, also unveiled its A12 chip at its annual technology symposium in Santa Clara, California. The A12 chip, which features TSMC’s super-power-rail technology to provide backside power delivery for AI and HPC applications, is also to enter volume production in 2029, a year after the scheduled release of the A14 chip. The technology moves
RSS