The WHO has warned that the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 might reinfect people who had recovered from COVID-19, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
The CECC on Friday announced that effective tomorrow, travelers from southern Africa, where the variant was first detected — South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and Zimbabwe — would need to quarantine for 14 days in a centralized facility after arriving in Taiwan.
The move followed similar requirements other countries imposed on travelers from those states.
Photo: Annabelle Chih, REUTERS
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, yesterday said that preliminary evidence suggests that the Omicron variant increases the risk of reinfection.
WHO experts are evaluating the transmissibility and severity of the variant, which appears to be spreading fast in southern Africa, as well as the effectiveness of preventive measures, diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics, he said.
As it would take some time to assess potential effects, the WHO has asked countries to enhance surveillance and sequencing efforts to better understand circulating variants, he said.
The global health body also asked countries to submit genome sequences and associated metadata to public databases, such as GISAID, and report cases involving the new variant through its International Health Regulations mechanism, he said.
It has further urged countries to conduct field investigations and laboratory assessments so that potential effects of the new variant can be better understood, he said.
The information of interest includes epidemiology, severity, effectiveness of public health and social measures, immune responses, and other characteristics, he said.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, said that to stop the new variant from entering Taiwan, the center would impose centralized quarantines on arrivals from the six countries, as it regards them as key high-risk states.
The adjustments to border control measures would be made in accordance with the global COVID-19 situation, but have no effect on life in Taiwan, he said, adding that there are no plans to tighten measures during the Lunar New Year holiday as long as there are no local Omicron cases.
Drugmakers Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE have announced that they would update their COVID-19 vaccine with regard to the new variant and produce a new jab within 100 days, Chen said.
If the firms succeed, the CECC would seek to acquire their updated vaccine, Chen said, adding that the process leading to an emergency use authorization would take time.
As of Friday, Taiwan’s first-dose vaccination rate had reached 77.59 percent and its full vaccination rate was 53.3 percent, the CECC said.
Taiwan yesterday reported 12 new imported cases of COVID-19 — eight men and four women who arrived from Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, South Korea and the US.
The CECC said that four of the cases are vaccine breakthrough infections, adding that three of them had received two doses of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, and one had received one dose each of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,