The next two weeks are critical for containing the COVID-19 outbreak, which hinges on the cooperation of confirmed cases and the public, infectious-disease experts said on Saturday.
After a sharp spike in cases, the Central Epidemic Command Center on Saturday raised the pandemic alert for Taipei and New Taipei City to level 3 until May 28.
While serious, Taiwan would make it through if the outbreak is contained over the next two weeks, said Chen Yee-chun (陳宜君), director of National Taiwan University Hospital’s (NTUH) Division of Infectious Diseases.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Cases have been climbing so rapidly due in part to the reluctance of confirmed cases to report their whereabouts, Chen said.
If there are any omissions, it makes it difficult to trace all of the contacts and prevent the virus from spreading further, she said.
Those who do not immediately report the places they have visited are exposing their friends and family to the greatest risk, she added.
Photo: Cheng Ming-hsiang, Taipei Times
The spread of the UK variant should serve as a warning that people can no longer indulge in a sense of superiority about Taiwan’s pandemic success, Chen said.
“The medical world is most scared of the India variant, as it is more virulent and deadly,” she added.
Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital deputy superintendent Chiu Cheng-hsun (邱政洵) said that he was “extremely surprised” at the 10 percent positivity rate at screening centers in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華).
At the height of the outbreak in New York last year, the positivity rate was also about 10 percent, Chiu said, adding that the rate in New Delhi has been higher than 30 percent.
A worst-case scenario would be if Taiwan saw more than 1,000 cases in one month, NTUH Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases physician Lee Ping-ing (李秉穎) said.
Raising the threat level in Taipei and New Taipei City presents an opportunity to contain the outbreak, Lee said, adding that as long as residents follow guidelines, the outbreak could be contained.
There is absolutely the opportunity to stem the spread as long as people are honest, Chen said.
However, if people are not willing to work together, it is not impossible that the situation could deteriorate to the level seen in India, she added.
In addition to people wearing a mask, washing their hands and not touching their face, Lee urged everyone to avoid contact with unfamiliar people over the next two weeks to stem the outbreak’s spread.
Chiu also called on the government to restrict movement in heavily affected areas.
Residents of level 2 and level 3 cities should avoid moving between the two regions, Chiu said, adding that maintaining these measures for one to two weeks would significantly reduce the caseload.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not
RSS