The government could lower the nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert after July 26 if vigilance is maintained and proper response measures are in place, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) told a news conference after a Cabinet meeting yesterday.
The level 3 alert has been in place since May 19, although certain disease control measures were eased from Tuesday.
A precondition for reopening is that public officials must be prepared to take act immediately if confirmed cases are discovered, instead of waiting for the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) to give step-by-step instructions, said Hsueh, who heads the center’s medical response division.
Photo courtesy of the Executive Yuan
As SARS-CoV-2 has not been fully contained, all sectors should be alert and ready with measures to deal with any emergency to prevent the virus from spreading, he added.
That daily confirmed cases have continued fall suggests that the situation is improving, said Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩), who heads the CECC’s disease surveillance division.
The CECC’s main objectives are to enhance screening for COVID-19 at the border, boost vaccine coverage and plan for whether the level 3 alert should be adjusted after July 26, he said.
Government agencies must remain vigilant even if some of the restrictions are relaxed, and officials should continue to monitor changes in the COVID-19 situation, the public mood and media reports to facilitate rolling reviews and adjustments to the restrictions, the ministry said in a news release.
Easing the restrictions by stages is an important and necessary step in managing the outbreak, and the public is urged to follow governmental protocols and protect the nation’s hard-won gains, it said.
In other news, at least five elderly Taichung residents had allegedly received a mix of AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccine doses after lying to medical workers, Taichung Health Bureau officials said.
Mixing vaccines — such as receiving a dose of AstraZeneca for the first shot and a dose of Moderna for the second one — has not been approved by the CECC.
The latest dose-mixing incident has sparked public concern amid reports that people have shared tips online on how to deceive medical workers to get a combination of jabs.
Many vaccination sites are not equipped with National Health Insurance card scanners, which are an essential tool for checking a patient’s medical record, Taichung Health Bureau Director Tseng Tzu-chan (曾梓展) said.
The central government should take steps to address this problem, which has prevented health workers from verifying vaccination records, he said.
CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), the CECC spokesman, said that while hospitals have scanners, other venues that administer vaccines have to rely on old-fashioned verification, such as manually examining the vaccination record card or the jab stickers on the National Health Insurance card, he said.
“We urge the public to behave rationally when getting the jab,” he said.
“The WHO has warned people against mixing and matching vaccines on their own,” he added.
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
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