The government is to provide free COVID-19 antigen rapid test kits to middle and low-income households, as well as long-term care facility residents, Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said yesterday, as the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) reported a record death toll for the second consecutive day.
Every member of a middle or low-income family is to receive five COVID-19 rapid test kits for free, and each resident of a long-term care facility would receive three, Lo told reporters after the Cabinet’s weekly meeting.
Providing the tests would help ease the financial burden of the pandemic for about 800,000 people, Lo cited Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) as telling the Cabinet.
Photo: Huang Shu-li, Taipei Times
Meanwhile, despite the wide availability of rapid test kits at pharmacies and convenience stores, the government would continue to supply the kits to local governments and schools, Lo said.
Su told the Cabinet that the priority at this stage is to preserve hospitals’ capacity to treat people who have developed moderate or severe symptoms.
After being briefed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare at the meeting, Su told the Cabinet that the domestic outbreak has begun to plateau, with 99.8 percent of confirmed cases being asymptomatic or mild, Lo said.
The announcement came as the CECC reported 81,907 new cases — 81,852 domestic infections and 55 imported — and a daily record 104 deaths.
The nation’s previous daily record for deaths was 76 on Wednesday.
Yesterday’s reported deaths ranged in age from 1 to older than 90, including 97 people who had chronic illnesses or other severe diseases, the CECC said.
Among the fatalities were two girls under the age of 5 — a one-year-old who died of septic shock after contracting COVID-19, and a four-year-old who had developed encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, and had multiple organ failure, it said.
The CECC said that 91 people who had previously been reported as COVID-19 cases had developed severe symptoms, while 242 others had developed moderate symptoms.
One of the cases, a seven-year-old boy who has cancer, was hospitalized when he was diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia after testing positive for COVID-19 and is in an intensive care unit, the CECC said.
The CECC has previously urged parents to look out for several symptoms in children that could indicate encephalitis, including a fever of 41°C or higher, loss of consciousness, lethargy, a persistent headache, vomiting, seizures and an unsteady gait.
Parents should immediately take their children to a hospital if they display any of these symptoms.
The CECC has also advised parents to arrange for their children aged 5 or older to be vaccinated against the disease.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)