Slightly more than 10 percent of Taiwan’s population had as of yesterday been infected with COVID-19, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, after Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) earlier said this would be an important milestone the nation had to reach before the number of daily cases could start to decline.
The total number of reported cases yesterday reached 2,342,794, slightly more than 10 percent of Taiwan’s total population of 23,319,776.
However, as many people infected with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, the true number of cases might be higher, up to 20 to 30 percent of the population, experts said.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan yesterday reported a single-day high of 152 deaths from COVID-19, surpassing the previous record of 145 deaths on Sunday last week, the CECC said.
The center also reported 68,151 new confirmed cases, of which 68,118 were classified as domestic and 33 as imported.
Yesterday’s deaths were aged from one to in their 90s, the CECC said.
Seventy-one were unvaccinated and 144 had chronic illnesses or other severe diseases, the center said.
The youngest person who died was a one-year-old boy who was previously hospitalized for a congenital heart disease, CECC data showed.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, said the boy, who depended on a respirator for breathing due to his comorbidity, had difficulty breathing on Saturday last week, when he was administered a polymerase chain reaction test that showed he had COVID-19.
He developed pneumonia and was admitted to an intensive care unit, Chuang said.
Despite treatment with remdesivir, an antiviral drug, and antibiotics, he passed away on Wednesday, Chuang said.
CECC data showed that he was the 12th child aged under 10 to die from COVID-19 complications this year.
The CECC said that 155 previously reported cases had developed severe symptoms, while 341 others had developed moderate symptoms.
Of the 2,246,911 domestic cases recorded in Taiwan this year, 2,328 have been classified as severe and 4,705 as moderate, or 0.1 percent and 0.21 percent respectively of the total, CECC data showed.
All other cases were either asymptomatic or had mild symptoms, the CECC said.
The highest number of yesterday’s new cases were in New Taipei City with 9,820, followed by Kaohsiung with 9,657 and Taichung with 9,511, the data showed.
Taoyuan reported 6,926 cases, Tainan reported 5,631, Taipei reported 5,228, Changhua County posted 4,475, Pingtung County reported 2,737, Hsinchu County posted 1,949, Miaoli County reported 1,719, Hsinchu City reported 1,551, Yunlin County posted 1,407 and Nantou County reported 1,308, the data showed.
Yilan County reported 1,212 cases, Chiayi County posted 1,129, Keelung reported 1,024, Hualien County posted 1,019, Chiayi City reported 738, Taitung County reported 672, Penghu County posted 194, Kinmen County reported 185 and Lienchiang County had 26, the data showed.
Taiwan has reported 2,329,609 domestic infections since the pandemic began in early 2020.
With the 152 deaths reported yesterday, Taiwan’s cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 fatalities rose to 2,815, the data showed.
Additional reporting by Wu Liang-yi
As China waged extensive military exercises off Taiwan, a group of US defense experts in Washington was focused on their own simulation of an eventual — but for now entirely hypothetical — US-China war over the nation. The unofficial what-if game is being conducted on the fifth floor of an office building not far from the White House, and it posits a US military response to a Chinese invasion in 2026. Even though the participants bring a US perspective, they are finding that a US-Taiwan victory, if there is one, could come at a huge cost. “The results are showing that under
WRONG TIMING: The delegation’s trip has not only disappointed Taiwanese, but could send a wrong message to the global community, Tsai Ing-wen said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia (夏立言) yesterday left with a delegation for a trip to China, drawing fire for visiting at a time when Beijing has been conducting intensive military drills to pressure Taiwan. Before boarding, he told reporters that the delegation would be visiting Taiwanese communities and students in China, and possibly meet with Chinese officials. The Mainland Affairs Council on Tuesday night said that it was not the right time for political party members to visit China, as Beijing has been conducting military exercises since Thursday last week. President Tsai Ing- wen (蔡英文), chairperson of the Democratic
ORDNANCE: Under a five-year plan, the Chungshan Institute would make about 200 Hsiung Feng II and III/IIIE, and Hsiung Sheng missiles, an official said The Ministry of National Defense plans to counter the Chinese navy by producing more than 1,000 anti-ship missiles over the next five years, a defense official familiar with the matter said yesterday. The comments came after China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy began a series of military drills in a simulated naval blockade of Taiwan proper following a visit to Taipei by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Although China has in the past few years rapidly produced many warships and added them to its navy, these large vessels are more suited for warfare on the open sea than in the narrow
The organizers of WorldPride 2025 have canceled the Kaohsiung event because its licensing group, InterPride, demanded that it remove “Taiwan” from the event’s name, they said in a statement yesterday. Kaohsiung was to host WorldPride Taiwan 2025 after being granted the right by the global LGBTQ advocacy group. However, the WorldPride 2025 Taiwan Preparation Committee said that InterPride recently gave “abrupt notice” asking it to change the name of the event and use “Kaohsiung” instead of “Taiwan,” even though it applied for the event using “Taiwan” in its name. The name was initially chosen for its significance to the Taiwanese LGBTQ community, as
RSS