The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported five new imported cases of COVID-19 from Indonesia, while it urged parents to have their children vaccinated against the flu.
Case Nos. 586 to 590 are Indonesian migrant workers, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is also the CECC’s spokesman, told a news conference in Taipei.
The five women, in their 20s to 30s, arrived in Taiwan on Oct. 28 and Oct. 29, and were staying at centralized quarantine facilities, he said.
Photo: CNA
Case No. 590 had a mild fever from Oct. 29 to Wednesday, but did not report it to staff at her facility, taking medicine on her own, he said.
The other four did not develop any symptoms during their quarantine period, he said.
All five were tested for COVID-19 on Tuesday and Wednesday before their quarantine period ended, he said.
They were yesterday confirmed to have COVID-19, and are currently hospitalized and in isolation, he said.
As case Nos. 586 to 589 were asymptomatic and were not in contact with other people, the CECC said it did not carry out contract tracing.
Ninety-one people have been listed as contacts of case No. 590, including people who were on the same flight or in the same vehicle as her, the CECC said, adding that they have been asked to self-
manage their health.
Since case No. 590 did not report her symptoms truthfully while in quarantine, the CECC has asked the local health department to conduct an investigation.
She might be fined NT$100,000 to NT$1 million (US$3,465 to US$34,650) under the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法), Chuang said.
Among the nation’s confirmed cases of COVID-19, seven had died and 50 remained hospitalized.
The center also reminded parents to have their children vaccinated against the flu as soon as possible.
The flu and the common cold are not the same, pediatrician Chen Mu-jung (陳木榮) told the news conference, adding that the former might result in more serious complications in children.
While the flu vaccine does not directly protect against other diseases, it could help reduce visits to the doctor and lower the risk of contracting diseases, he said.
CDC data showed that as of Monday, about 480,000 preschool-age children had been vaccinated against the flu under its publicly funded program, which was launched on Oct. 5.
This translates into a coverage rate of 42.1 percent, which is lower compared with previous years, the CDC said in a statement on Tuesday.
As of Wednesday, the coverage rate had increased to 43 percent, the CDC said yesterday.
The target coverage rate for this age group is 55.5 percent, it said, adding that about 143,000 more children would need to be vaccinated to reach it.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods