Taiwan’s first cases of the new Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 of SARS-CoV-2 have been detected in five people arriving from overseas, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), who is deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said genome sequencing conducted on virus samples from 57 imported cases last week showed that four people were infected with the BA.5 subvariant, one with the BA.4 subvariant and the rest with the BA.2 subvariant.
While the new subvariants account for a small proportion of total imported cases, they have not been found in local cases, he added.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The four cases of the BA.5 subvariant were found in people who arrived from the US, Turkey and Poland, while the BA.4 subvariant was found in a traveler who arrived from Chile, Lo said.
The people with BA.5 infections are asymptomatic or have mild COVID-19 symptoms, with one reporting a sore throat and another an abnormal sense of taste, he said.
Health authorities in South Africa first detected the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants in January and February respectively, Lo said, adding that they triggered a new wave of COVID-19 infections in that country in April and May.
Studies have shown that the two subvariants are more easily transmitted than previous Omicron subvariants and have a degree of “immune escape” — the ability to evade immune protection in the body induced by previous infection or vaccination, he said.
WHO data released on Wednesday last week showed that the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants have been reported in more than 40 countries, he said.
“Based on current studies, there is no indication that the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants cause a higher risk of severe cases, but they are more contagious and capable of escaping immune protection,” he said, adding that the center is closely monitoring any changes in COVID-19 detected in imported cases, while increasing vaccination rates.
The risk of being reinfected with the same strain of SARS-CoV-2 is relatively low, but not impossible, Lo said, adding that if the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants become the primary circulating viruses in the local community, the risk of reinfection could rise.
Experts agree that a person’s immune protection from a previous COVID-19 infection can last about three months, but a few people might still contract the disease again, he said.
Asked whether “herd immunity” would be effective against the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, Lo said that the local outbreak is mainly caused by the BA.2 subvariant, with antibodies protecting against the BA.1 and BA.2 subvariants for at least three to four months.
Over the weekend, he said the BA.1 subvariant has not been recorded locally since April 21.
TAIWAN IS TAIWAN: US Representative Tom Tiffany said the amendment was not controversial, as ‘Taiwan is not — nor has it ever been — part of Communist China’ The US House of Representatives on Friday passed an amendment banning the US Department of Defense from creating, buying or displaying any map that shows Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The “Honest Maps” amendment was approved in a voice vote on Friday as part of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for the 2026 fiscal year. The amendment prohibits using any funds from the act to create, buy or display maps that show Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, Penghu, Wuciou (烏坵), Green Island (綠島) or Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) as part of the PRC. The act includes US$831.5 billion in
‘WORLD WAR III’: Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said the aid would inflame tensions, but her amendment was rejected 421 votes against six The US House of Representatives on Friday passed the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for fiscal 2026, which includes US$500 million for Taiwan. The bill, which totals US$831.5 billion in discretionary spending, passed in a 221-209 vote. According to the bill, the funds for Taiwan would be administered by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency and would remain available through Sept. 30, 2027, for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative. The legislation authorizes the US Secretary of Defense, with the agreement of the US Secretary of State, to use the funds to assist Taiwan in procuring defense articles and services, and military training. Republican Representative
Taiwan is hosting the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) for the first time, welcoming more than 400 young linguists from 43 nations to National Taiwan University (NTU). Deputy Minister of Education Chu Chun-chang (朱俊彰) said at the opening ceremony yesterday that language passes down knowledge and culture, and influences the way humankind thinks and understands the world. Taiwan is a multicultural and multilingual nation, with Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, Hakka, 16 indigenous languages and Taiwan Sign Language all used, Chu said. In addition, Taiwan promotes multilingual education, emphasizes the cultural significance of languages and supports the international mother language movement, he said. Taiwan has long participated
Taiwan must invest in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to keep abreast of the next technological leap toward automation, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said at the luanch ceremony of Taiwan AI and Robots Alliance yesterday. The world is on the cusp of a new industrial revolution centered on AI and robotics, which would likely lead to a thorough transformation of human society, she told an event marking the establishment of a national AI and robotics alliance in Taipei. The arrival of the next industrial revolution could be a matter of years, she said. The pace of automation in the global economy can
RSS