Tony Chen (陳秀熙), a professor and vice dean of National Taiwan University’s (NTU) College of Public Health, yesterday said that Taiwan should start conducting antibody testing to discover the prevalence of COVID-19 in the nation.
Reviewing the college’s 17th weekly report on COVID-19, Chen introduced an “index for easing lockdown and border control regulations,” calculated using a formula that includes the nation’s total number of confirmed cases, recovered cases and mortality rate — the number of deaths divided by the number of confirmed cases.
An index score of less than one indicates that a country can consider gradually easing its restrictions, while those with an index score of more than one could still be recovering from a COVID-19 outbreak or still have a serious COVID-19 situation, he said.
Photo: Chang Tsung-chiu, Taipei Times
Countries with the lowest index scores include Iceland at 0.01, New Zealand at 0.03 and Taiwan at 0.06, Chen said.
However, some of the countries or areas that Taiwanese most like to visit still have relatively high index scores, including the US at 4.07, the Philippines at 3.57 and Canada at 1.11, he said.
Other countries or areas with high index scores included Bolivia at 11, central Africa at 37, France at 2.25, New York State at 5.03 and Sweden at 7.33, Chen’s data showed.
After introducing some social distancing or digital contact tracing apps used in other counties as a reference, Chen said: “Taiwan does not have to conduct wide-scale antibody testing for COVID-19, but we must conduct the tests on several groups of people.”
He said the antibody testing is necessary to understand the prevalence of the disease and how long immunity lasts, to calculate the herd immunity among different groups of people and to consider how to gradually ease social distancing measures.
Chen said that seven groups of people should be tested first: confirmed cases; people under home isolation; people under home quarantine or who have recently visited other countries; healthcare practitioners; flight attendants; people in densely populated facilities, such as businesses that fall under the “eight major special establishment categories” and long-term care centers; and migrant workers.
Changhua County Public Health Bureau Director Yeh Yen-po (葉彥伯) said that the county plans to cooperate with the NTU College of Public Health and conduct antibody testing on confirmed cases, their close contacts, healthcare practitioners and people who are at higher risk of contracting the virus.
Starting this month, the county expects to test about 10,000 people, Yeh said.
In related developments, the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI), in collaboration with the National Defense Medical Center, said that they are likely to have a rapid diagnostic test for the novel coronavirus ready for market by the end of the year.
A prototype of the test, which was unveiled in early April, produces results within 10 to 15 minutes and has a 70 percent accuracy rate, the NHRI said.
The NHRI said that it has transferred the test technology to five domestic manufacturers, which would develop the test so that they can mass produce it. However, the clinical studies would have to be conducted abroad, officials said.
Additional reporting by CNA
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
‘REALLY PROUD’: Nvidia would not be possible without Taiwan, Huang said, adding that TSMC would be increasing its capacity by 100 percent Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday praised and lightly cajoled his major Taiwanese suppliers to produce more to help power strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI), capping a visit to the country of his birth, where he has been mobbed by adoring fans at every step. Speaking at an impromptu press conference in the rain outside a Taipei restaurant, where he had hosted suppliers for a “trillion-dollar dinner,” named after the market capitalization of those firms attending, Huang said this would be another good year for business. “TSMC needs to work very hard this year because I need a lot
RSS