The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 55 locally transmitted COVID-19 infections and five deaths, as the nation took delivery of a third shipment of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine that it had purchased from the US drugmaker.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the 55 cases — 30 males and 25 females — ranged in age from younger than five to older than 80 and began having symptoms between June 20 and Tuesday.
Twenty-seven tested positive during or upon completing home isolation, he said.
Photo: Tony Yao, Taipei Times
The infection sources of 31 cases have been identified, while 22 cases are under investigation and two are unclear, Chen said.
New Taipei City reported 23 cases, followed by Taipei with 22, Taoyuan with five, Miaoli County and Kaohsiung two each, and Pingtung County one, he said.
The deaths were three men and two women aged 60 to 80 with underlying health conditions, CECC data showed.
Another case was linked to the cluster infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in Pingtung County, bringing the total to 15 — two imported cases and 13 locally transmitted cases, Chen said.
The case — a work colleague of a previous case — had tested negative during home isolation before testing positive in the latest test, Chen said.
The additional case does not necessarily mean that the cluster has expanded, as the person was under isolation when contagious, he said.
As of Tuesday, 6,041 residents had received a COVID-19 test at five community screening stations set up in Pingtung County’s Fangshan (枋山) and Fangliao (枋寮) townships.
Chen said that 5,921 of them tested negative in their polymerase chain reaction tests, while 120 people are awaiting test results.
The test result for a previously reported case returned positive, he added.
Due to a cluster infection of five at a residential building in Kaohsiung’s Fongshan District (鳳山), the Kaohsiung City Government isolated 187 people at quarantine hotels or centralized quarantine facilities, Chen said.
The five were from two families, living on the third and seventh floors of the building, he said.
As they did not have direct contact with each other, the local government said that there might be environmental contamination in the building’s public spaces, which is why the residents were evacuated, he said.
Contact tracing and testing were promptly conducted, he said, adding that the building’s 146 residents, 50 of their close contacts at work and 35 people at nearby stores all tested negative.
Environmental surface testing at 35 places was also conducted, which all returned negative, he said.
Meanwhile, a third Moderna vaccine shipment arrived yesterday afternoon on an EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) cargo flight that left Amsterdam late on Tuesday.
The doses were transported to a designated cold storage logistics center for an inspection and sealing operations, the CECC said.
The 410,000 doses is part of Taiwan’s order of 5.05 million Moderna doses. The first batch of 150,000 doses arrived in Taiwan on May 28, and a second shipment of 240,000 doses arrived on June 18.
There was also an additional 2.5 million doses donated by the US, which arrived on June 20.
As of Tuesday, 2,002,677 doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in Taiwan, and the vaccination coverage rate is 8.35 percent, CECC data showed.
Additional reporting by CNA
OPTIMISTIC: The DGBAS sharply upgraded its GDP growth estimate from 3.54 percent to 7.71 percent after the Taiwan-US trade agreement signing and given AI optimism The US imported more from Taiwan than China for the first time in decades, as US President Donald Trump’s tariffs reshape trade flows while a global boom in artificial intelligence (AI) fuels demand for tech products. US purchases of goods from China plunged almost 44 percent in December last year from 2024 to US$21.1 billion, US Department of Commerce data showed on Thursday. By contrast, shipments from Taiwan more than doubled during the same period to US$24.7 billion. The soaring Taiwanese shipments to the US reflect the huge expansion in supplies of chips and servers for AI companies, which has completely changed
NON-NEGOTIABLE: The US president’s action ran counter to one of the US’ ‘six assurances’ on not consulting China about arms sales to Taiwan, US lawmakers said US President Donald Trump’s admission that he is discussing arms sales to Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is “alarming and a blatant violation of US policy and the six assurances,” US Representative Ro Khanna said on Tuesday. Trump on Monday said he would decide soon on whether to send more weapons to Taiwan, after Xi warned him not to do so. “I’m talking to him about it. We had a good conversation, and we’ll make a determination pretty soon,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One when asked about warnings raised by Beijing during a phone call with Xi over
The Central Election Commission has amended election and recall regulations to require elected office candidates to provide proof that they have no Chinese citizenship, a Cabinet report said. The commission on Oct. 29 last year revised the Measures for the Permission of Family-based Residence, Long-term Residence and Settlement of People from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area (大陸地區人民在台灣地區依親居留長期居留或定居許可辦法), the Executive Yuan said in a report it submitted to the legislature for review. The revision requires Chinese citizens applying for permanent residency to submit notarial documents showing that they have lost their Chinese household record and have renounced — or have never
US and Chinese fighter jets briefly faced off above waters near the Korean Peninsula this week, Yonhap News agency reported, marking a rare confrontation in that area between the two superpowers. About 10 US fighter jets on Wednesday departed an airbase in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, for drills above international waters off South Korea’s western coast, the news outlet cited unidentified military sources as saying. While the US planes did not enter China’s air defense identification zone, Beijing scrambled planes as they neared that region, the report said. “The Chinese People’s Liberation Army organized naval and air forces to monitor and effectively respond
RSS