More than 200,000 doses of flu vaccines were administered on the first day of government-funded vaccination on Monday, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, urging eligible people get vaccinated as soon as possible.
About 6 million government-funded flu vaccines have been prepared for nine high-risk groups of people, and 209,240 shots were administered on the first day, about the same number given a year earlier, it said.
There were 50,267 cases of flu-like illnesses nationwide last week and 38 clustered flu cases were reported in the past four weeks, with 24 clusters (63.2 percent) found at schools, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Liu Ting-ping (劉定萍) said.
There have been 17 cases of serious complications caused by the flu this season, which started on Oct. 1, of whom 10, or 59 percent, were infected with the influenza A (H3N2) strain.
“The common circulating virus now is the influenza A virus, and flu activity has been relatively low at this point,” CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said.
However, flu activity often begins to increase in November, and it takes about two weeks for the body to develop antibodies after getting a flu vaccine, so the CDC advises people to get vaccinated earlier, he added.
In related news, clustered cases of chicken pox have been increasing in Taipei, the Taipei Department of Health said.
Twelve clusters have been reported since the new school semester began, for a total of 85 cases from last month to Thursday last week, the department said, adding that the number is 2.7 times higher from the same period last year.
Five clusters involving 55 cases were reported in elementary schools, three clusters involving 11 cases were found at junior-high schools and two clusters each were reported at senior-high schools (10 cases) and cram schools (nine cases), it said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai