Local clinics are being recruited to provide government-funded polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing for COVID-19, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported 23,102 new local infections, including 25 cases with moderate or severe complications.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the CECC has invited local clinics to help perform PCR tests.
More than 300 clinics affiliated with the Taiwan Medical Association (TMA) and the Taiwan Otolaryngology Society want to help, Chen said.
Photo: CNA
A list of clinics that meet the CECC’s criteria would be posted on the center’s Web site, he said, adding that approved clinics would receive personal protective equipment and rapid COVID-19 test kits for their staff.
Yesterday, the center also reported 37 imported cases.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said that 18 more cases with moderate or severe complications — including five deaths — were confirmed.
The people who died were aged 70 or older, unvaccinated and had underlying health conditions, Lo said, adding that two were given molnupiravir, an oral antiviral to prevent their illnesses from becoming more severe.
Of the 23 COVID-19-associated deaths reported so far this year, 12 were unvaccinated (52 percent), four received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine (17 percent), five received two doses (22 percent) and two received three doses (9 percent).
As more than half of the deaths were unvaccinated and nearly 70 percent not fully vaccinated, Lo urged older people to get vaccinated to prevent severe illness or death.
Yesterday, 22,000 courses of the oral antiviral Paxlovid were delivered to 22 hospitals that treat emergency cases, and between today and Friday, 228,000 courses would be delivered to 188 hospitals that treat general cases, he said.
Another 20,000 courses of the drug would be delivered on Friday to 57 “core pharmacies” — those designated by the Federation of Taiwan Pharmacists’ Associations as having more storage space so that they can serve as community dispensaries, he said.
Other local pharmacies can pick up and deliver the drug to people isolating at home, he added.
With a delivery of 200,000 courses of Paxlovid expected to arrive on Saturday, the CECC would still have about 280,000 courses remaining after the weekend, Lo said.
Paxlovid is more effective when prescribed within five days of the onset of COVID-19 symptoms, so it is better if all doctors can prescribe it for their patients.
Asked when a person who has had direct contact with a confirmed case should test themselves, Chen said he does not recommend that they conduct a rapid COVID-19 test on the day of contact.
The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has an incubation period of about three days, Lo said, suggesting that people perform the test at least one day after contact, but before three days.
The incubation period can be a little longer for some people, so people could perform another test after about seven to 10 days after exposure if they are worried, he added.
If they test negative on the first test, they should test again if they experience symptoms over several days, Chen said.
The US Department of State yesterday criticized Beijing over its misrepresentation of the US’ “one China” policy in the latest diplomatic salvo between the two countries over a bid by Taiwan to regain its observer status at the World Health Assembly, the decisionmaking body of the WHO. “The PRC [People’s Republic of China] continues to publicly misrepresent U.S. policy,” Department of State spokesman Ned Price wrote on Twitter. “The United States does not subscribe to the PRC’s ‘one China principle’ — we remain committed to our longstanding, bipartisan one China policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, Three Joint Communiques, and
FATES LINKED: The US president said that sanctions on Russia over Ukraine must exact a ‘long-term price,’ because otherwise ‘what signal does that send to China?’ US President Joe Biden yesterday vowed that US forces would defend Taiwan militarily in the event of a Chinese attack in his strongest statement to date on the issue. Beijing is already “flirting with danger,” Biden said following talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, in which the pair agreed to monitor Chinese naval activity and joint Chinese-Russian exercises. Asked if Washington was willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan, he replied: “Yes.” “That’s the commitment we made,” Biden said. “We agreed with the ‘one China’ policy, we signed on to it ... but the idea that it can be
SUBTLE? While Biden said the US policy of ‘strategic ambiguity’ on Taiwan had not changed, the group targeted China and Russia without naming them Leaders of Australia, India, Japan and the US yesterday warned against attempts to “change the status quo by force,” as concerns grow about whether China could invade Taiwan. The issue of Taiwan loomed over a leadership meeting in Tokyo of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) nations — the US, Japan, Australia and India — who stressed their determination to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific region in the face of an increasingly assertive China, although Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the group was not targeting any one country. The four leaders said in a joint statement issued after their talks
Nearly half of Taiwanese believe President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has not done enough to prepare the nation against Chinese aggression, the a poll released yesterday by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation showed. Asked whether the Tsai administration’s military and non-military preparations to defend Taiwan are adequate, 30.6 percent said they were “mostly inadequate” and 18.9 percent said they “very inadequate,” while 25.7 percent said they were “mostly adequate” and 7.1 percent said they were “very adequate.” Another 17.6 percent had no opinion or did not know enough to form a judgement. Still, 51 percent of respondents approved of Tsai’s national defense policy,
RSS