A growing cluster of COVID-19 cases that started at a religious gathering in Taipei has become an issue of major concern, as all but one of 16 new domestic cases recorded yesterday were linked to the gathering, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.
The first case in the cluster was confirmed on Sunday — a male New Taipei City resident who had contracted the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 — and since then the number has grown to 30, including 15 reported yesterday, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, told a news conference.
The man’s roommate and three other contacts are among those who have tested positive for COVID-19, Chen said, adding that one of them had been part of the religious gathering in Taipei on Sunday.
Photo: CNA
On Thursday, eight people who were at the gathering were confirmed to be infected with COVID-19, while 15 of the 16 new domestic cases reported yesterday were also linked to the cluster — seven in New Taipei City, five in Taipei, two in Kaohsiung and one in Tainan, he said.
The CECC sees the cluster as a matter of major concern, given that people who attended the gathering on Sunday traveled from across Taiwan, he said.
Local authorities are working on contact tracing of confirmed cases in an effort to contain the spread of the disease, Chen added.
Meanwhile, the one other new domestic case reported yesterday was the child of a Tainan resident who had tested positive on Wednesday after he visited a friend in Kaohsiung, the CECC said.
The friend is the relative of an employee at the Dalin Refinery Plant in Kaohsiung, which has been the site of another domestic cluster of nine cases that is now under control, as about 3,000 contacts have tested negative, Chen said.
Two of the employee’s relatives, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, were confirmed to be infected with the Omicron BA.2 variant of SARS-CoV-2, which had caused a cluster linked to the Port of Kaohsiung, he said.
At a separate news conference, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said that two new COVID-19 cases were reported in the city on Thursday which were part of the religious gathering cluster.
One is an employee at a Yageo Corp factory in Kaohsiung and 180 of his 392 identified contacts have tested negative so far, the mayor said.
In Tainan, the city government said that 71 people had been listed as contacts of a woman who was part of the religious gathering, while 41 have been identified as contacts of her child, who tested positive after being placed in quarantine.
Thirteen of yesterday’s new domestic cases were classified as breakthrough infections, while three were unvaccinated, including a boy under the age of 10 who is not eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in Taiwan, the CECC said.
In addition to the domestic cases, the CECC reported 51 imported cases yesterday.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency as well as long-term residency in Taiwan has decreased, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that the reduction of Chinese spouses staying or living in Taiwan is only one facet reflecting the general decrease in the number of people willing to get married in Taiwan. The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency last year was 7,123, down by 2,931, or 29.15 percent, from the previous year. The same census showed that the number of Chinese spouses applying for long-term residency and receiving approval last year stood at 2,973, down 1,520,
RSS