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.”
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of
UNITED: The other candidates congratulated Cheng on her win, saying they hoped the new chair could bring the party to victory in the elections next year and in 2028 Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday won the party’s chair election with 65,122 votes, or 50.15 percent of the votes. It was the first time Cheng, 55, ran for the top KMT post, and she is the second woman to hold the post of chair, following Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), who served from 2016 to 2017. Cheng is to succeed incumbent Eric Chu (朱立倫) on Nov. 1 for a four-year term. Cheng said she has spoken with the other five candidates and pledged to maintain party unity, adding that the party would aim to win the elections next year and
RSS