The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported six local and four imported COVID-19 cases, while President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is today to receive a vaccine developed by domestic firm Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp (高端疫苗).
Inoculations with the Medigen vaccine are to start today.
Tsai on Monday last week said she booked an appointment on the national online COVID-19 vaccination booking system to get vaccinated today.
Photo courtesy of the Presidential Office
Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) yesterday said that Tsai would receive the vaccine at the gymnasium at National Taiwan University’s College of Medicine at about 7:30am, to avoid disturbing other vaccine recipients.
Meanwhile, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the six local infections are three men and three women, two of whom tested positive during or upon ending isolation.
Three local cases were reported in Taipei and one each in New Taipei City, Taoyuan and Yunlin County, he said, adding that the infection sources of three cases have been identified, two are still under investigation and one remains unclear.
As Yunlin has not reported any cases for two months, people might be concerned about the new case, but the center thinks it poses a low risk to the local community, Chen said.
The person arrived in Taiwan in March and tested negative before starting work as a domestic worker in Taipei. She also tested negative before starting work at a household in Yunlin, to which she transferred in the middle of last month, he said, adding that she tested positive at a hospital as she was planning to accompany a patient there.
The cycle threshold values from her test results were between 36 and 38, indicating a low viral load, and she tested negative for immunoglobulin M and positive for immunoglobulin G in an antibody test, indicating a previous infection, so it is unlikely that she contracted the disease in Yunlin or is contagious, he said.
The four imported cases are travelers from Germany, India, Japan and South Africa.
CECC data showed that the four had been vaccinated, but Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy chief of the CECC’s medical response division, said that only the people from Japan and Germany had been fully vaccinated.
So far there have been 19 imported cases of breakthrough infections; eight people received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and five received the AstraZeneca vaccine, he said.
No new COVID-19 deaths were reported yesterday.
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