A city-wide lockdown is a measure of last resort, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, adding that the cluster of COVID-19 infections at the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Taoyuan General Hospital has not reached that level.
With 10 cases reported from among the hospital’s workers and their relatives, some people, including Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members, are asking whether the center should consider locking down Taoyuan to prevent further spread of the virus.
The CECC yesterday reported two more cases imported from the Philippines and one from Denmark, but no more from the hospital.
The hospital cluster has prompted authorities to place 564 people in isolation.
Clarifying the steps that would be taken before a possible lockdown, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, told a news briefing in Taipei that it is difficult to say when the cluster case could be closed.
The cluster infection at the hospital falls under the center’s first alert level, which is having isolated cases of cluster infection due to imported cases, he said.
Photo: Chen En-hui, Taipei Times
The second alert level is when locally transmitted cases appear that have unknown sources of infection, while the third alert level is when there are three cluster infections within one week, or 10 local cases within one day with unknown origins of infection.
The fourth alert level is when there are 100 confirmed cases per day for two consecutive weeks, with more than half of those infected having unknown sources of infection.
In the fourth level, people should not leave their residences unless absolutely necessary and must observe social distancing, Chen said, adding that people should wear masks and observe social distancing indoors.
All gatherings would be suspended, and all work and classes suspended, unless they are occupations related to everyday life, maintaining law and order, healthcare and medical services, and civil services, Chen said.
Counties, townships and districts with severe pandemic infection rates would be locked down with restricted exit and entry, Chen said, adding that residents would need to stay at home.
However, the nation is only at the first alert level, and people only need to wear masks on public transportation and in crowded areas, Chen said.
An analysis of five patients in the hospital cluster infection found that they carry the L452R and D614G mutations, the center said.
The WHO has not yet designated the L452R strain, discovered in California, as a new variant.
However, only further research would tell whether L452R has a faster infection rate, said Shih Shin-ru (施信如), director of Chang Gung University’s Research Center for Emerging Viral Infections.
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
RSS