The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) would consider downgrading COVID-19 from a category 5 notifiable communicable disease to category 4 in July, when the nation’s border controls could also be relaxed, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday.
COVID-19 was given the category 5 designation in January 2020, allowing the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to quarantine suspected cases based on the guidelines for communicable disease prevention.
Taiwan’s latest outbreak might peak at the end of this month or early next month, after which daily caseloads would fall by two-thirds, Chen said, citing outbreaks in other countries.
Photo: CNA
The center would then consider changing the designation for COVID-19 from category 5 to category 4, said Chen, who heads the CECC.
CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, said that a category 4 designation would still require people with COVID-19 to be quarantined and undergo treatment at a designated institution if necessary.
The difference is that a category 4 disease must be reported within 24 hours to one month of diagnosis depending on the illness, while a category 5 disease must be reported within 24 hours, he said.
Photo courtesy of the Central Epidemic Command Center
Separately, Chen was asked about a report by British newspaper the Daily Telegraph that Taiwan could face “unprecedented death rates by this summer” due to its “little natural immunity and suboptimal vaccination rates among the vulnerable.”
“While the center will take in theoretical predictions for reference, we will continue to pursue the good and avoid the bad by doing our best to keep the pandemic situation under control,” Chen said.
The CECC yesterday reported 44,361 new COVID-19 cases — including 67 imported — and 12 deaths from the disease.
Although it was the second consecutive day that the nation’s daily caseload surpassed 40,000, it was a slight drop from the 46,377 domestic cases reported on Saturday.
Chen said the decline was likely due to fewer people getting tested over weekends.
The deaths reported yesterday involved people aged 60 to 100. Six of them had received no COVID-19 vaccine, two had received a single dose, one received two doses and three received three doses.
The CECC also reported 106 people with moderate symptoms and 12 with severe symptoms.
Of the 288,515 domestic cases recorded in Taiwan from Jan. 1 to Saturday, 606 have been classified as moderate infections and 101 as severe, accounting for 0.21 percent and 0.04 percent of the total respectively. The rest were asymptomatic or mild cases, the CECC said.
New Taipei City yesterday reported the most new COVID-19 cases with 17,948, followed by Taipei with 8,213 and Taoyuan with 5,494.
Taichung reported 2,358 cases, Kaohsiung 2,010, Tainan 1,322, Keelung 1,310, Yilan County 884, Pingtung County 695, Hsinchu County 688, Hualien County 649, Changhua County 536 and Hsinchu City 515.
Yunlin County reported 398 cases, Miaoli County 375, Nantou County 260, Taitung County 224, Chiayi County 205, Chiayi City 111, Penghu County 54, Kinmen County 28 and Lienchiang County 17.
In other developments, the Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday confirmed that the four major convenience store chains in Taiwan — 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, Hi-Life and OK Mart — would start selling rapid test kits again from today.
The prices would be based on market demand, the ministry said, adding that it did not yet have access to details such as the brands and number of tests per kit.
Rapid test kits are available to the public mainly through a government rationing system that was launched on April 28, allowing people with a government-issued ID or National Health Insurance card to buy a five-piece test kit at a controlled price of NT$500.
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,