The local COVID-19 situation is at a critical threshold, but it can hopefully be brought under control in the next couple of weeks, the Central Epidemic Command Center said yesterday.
The center made the remarks after reporting 274 locally transmitted cases, 73 backlogged cases and 15 deaths.
Of the 274 local infections, 129 are male and 145 are female, from under the age of five to older than 90, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center.
Photo: CNA
They began showing symptoms between April 29 and Sunday, he said.
Of the 73 backlogged cases, 36 are male and 37 are female, from under the age of five to over 90, Chen said.
They began experiencing symptoms between May 14 and Saturday, he added.
Among all 347 cases reported yesterday, 171 live in New Taipei City, followed by Taipei with 122, Taoyuan with 27, Changhua County with 10, Taichung with five, Keelung and Miaoli County with three each, Hsinchu City with two, and one each in Kaohsiung, and Hualien, Penghu and Hsinchu counties.
Two of the 54 cases who do not live in Taipei or New Taipei City had visited Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), 46 have clear infection sources, and six have an unclear association with previous cases, Chen said.
The 15 deaths due to COVID-19 are nine men and six women, aged 60 to 100. They began experiencing symptoms between May 11 and Friday, and tested positive between May 17 and Sunday. They died between May 21 and Saturday.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said that among the 7,080 cases confirmed since April 20, 1,055 people, or 14.9 percent, showed symptoms of the disease, including severe pneumonia or acute respiratory distress.
Among those aged 60 or older, 27.5 percent experienced serious COVID-19 symptoms, which is a relatively high percentage, he said, adding that many of them have underlying health conditions or are elderly people.
Since the center began adding backlogged cases on May 21, the number of daily backlogged cases has gradually dropped from a peak of 400 on May 21 to 89 on Sunday and 73 yesterday, showing that the pending cases are being cleared, and as a result the efficiency of placing confirmed cases under isolation would increase, Chen said.
The CECC will continue to make rolling adjustments to the implementation of enhanced disease prevention measures under the level 3 COVID-19 alert and endeavor to shorten the period between a person undergoing testing and being placed under isolation, which would bring the virus under control, he said.
The CECC has also ordered monoclonal antibody drugs, which would be administered to patients who are at a high risk of developing severe symptoms from COVID-19 to protect them and reduce the burden on the healthcare system, he added.
“The recent wave of local outbreaks has gradually slowed down,” Chen said, citing the latest effective reproduction number (Rt), which has dropped to 1.02 from a peak of about 15 from May 13 to 15.
The COVID-19 alert was raised to level 3 in Taipei and New Taipei City on May 15, and nationwide on May 19, Chen said, adding that the decline in the Rt value shows that people’s compliance with the enhanced public health measures has been effective.
CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesperson, said most people are more familiar with the basic reproduction number (R0), which refers to the predicted average number of people who contracts the disease from an infected person, in a population where everyone is susceptible.
However, a population is totally susceptible to an infection after outbreaks, so the Rt value is the expected average number of new infections caused by an infectious case, in a population where some individuals are no longer susceptible, he said.
When the Rt value is one, it means that each infectious person can on average transmit the disease to one other person, and if the Rt value drops below one, there would be a decline in the number of cases, bringing the epidemic under control, he said.
“Having gone through a period of implementing enhanced measures, we are at a critical threshold,” Chen said. “I want to tell everyone that their sacrifices and efforts have been effective [in curbing the spread of COVID-19], but we must continue them in the next couple of weeks to bring the Rt value to below one.”
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
RSS