The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday announced the availability of this year’s government-funded flu vaccines, urging eligible people to be vaccinated as soon as possible.
The CDC purchased 6 million vaccines for this flu season, hoping to achieve a national coverage rate of at least 25 percent, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who took the lead by getting a shot yesterday morning.
“Rather than receiving a government flu vaccination, some people pay to get vaccinated, and flu prevention was very effective last year,” he said. “Serious flu complications were fewer than 1,000 cases last year, which is a relatively low number compared with the year before, so we hope to achieve a similar result this year.”
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The number of flu cases in the nation generally increases rapidly starting in late November every year, peaks at the end of the year or the beginning of the next year, and gradually decreases in February or March, the CDC said.
As it takes about two weeks for antibodies to develop in the body after vaccination, the CDC urged people to get vaccinated as soon as possible in October so that they would be better protected during the worst part of the flu season.
In addition to the groups eligible to receive government-funded vaccines last year, the government is covering two additional groups: parents with infants younger than six months old and people who work at preschools or nurseries.
Photo: CNA
Last year’s eligible groups were children and adolescents from six months to 18 years old; adults above 50 years old; people with chronic, rare or catastrophic illnesses, or a body mass index of 30 or above; institutionalized people; medical and disease prevention personnel; those who keep livestock; and animal disease prevention personnel.
At another location yesterday, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) demonstrated how to get the flu vaccine shot, while his parents also received pneumococcal conjugate vaccines.
The Taipei City Government had announced that it would provide government-funded pneumococcal conjugate vaccinations to the city’s senior residents (65 years old or above), starting on the same day as the flu vaccination, urging those eligible to get both shots.
“Prevention is more important than treatment, and vaccination is a very effective prevention method,” Ko said, adding that the city government is providing additional funding to vaccinate senior residents because pneumonia was the nation’s third -biggest cause of death last year.
To enhance the city’s general protection against the flu, the city also provides government-funded flu vaccinations to city government personnel who meet a lot of people in their daily duties, such as the police, environmental protection personnel, and elementary and high-school teachers, he said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the