The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported six locally transmitted COVID-19 infections, the lowest figure since a local outbreak started in May, and reiterated that there were no plans to adjust the nationwide COVID-19 alert next week.
Following a decrease in COVID-19 cases, the CECC on Tuesday last week lowered the COVID-19 alert to level 2 from level 3, which was imposed on May 19.
The center, which has been updating the alert level every two weeks, had said that the level 2 alert would be in effect until Monday next week.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
Although there have been no significant changes in the domestic COVID-19 situation since restrictions were relaxed, one week of observation is not enough, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, told a daily news briefing in Taipei.
The plan is to maintain the level 2 alert after Monday next week if there were no major changes in the COVID-19 situation, he said.
However, the center is reviewing its industry-specific guidelines on COVID-19 prevention and would make minor adjustments, he said.
Of the domestic COVID-19 cases recorded yesterday, four were men and two were women, with an onset of symptoms between July 23 and Wednesday, the center said.
New Taipei City had four cases, while Taipei and Taoyuan recorded one case each, it said.
Two of the local cases have known sources of infection, three have unclear links with confirmed cases and one is under investigation, it said.
The center also reported five imported cases — four men and one woman who arrived from Nigeria, South Africa and the US between July 21 and Tuesday — and no deaths.
As of yesterday, Taiwan had recorded 15,753 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 1,280 imported and 14,420 domestic cases, with 791 deaths, CECC data showed.
May 15 marked the first time the nation recorded more than 100 COVID-19 cases in a single day since the pandemic began.
Between May 11 and Tuesday, the CECC reported 14,522 confirmed cases, 13,001, or 89.5 percent, of whom had recovered, it said.
Asked whether the government plans to hold a parade for the nation’s Olympics team, Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), the deputy head of the CECC, said that the Ministry of Education, which oversees the Sports Administration, had not reached a decision on the matter.
If a parade were to be held, disease prevention measures would be carried out according to the COVID-19 situation, he said.
As of yesterday, Taiwan had won 12 medals — two golds, four silver and six bronze — at the Tokyo 2020 Games, its best performance in Olympic history.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the