Disease prevention is not an easy task, let alone dealing with one as tricky as SARS-CoV-2. More effort and greater vigilance are needed to ascertain that potential loopholes are blocked, shielding approaches are taken and pre-emptive measures are adopted to reduce the risks of COVID-19 exposure and transmission.
However, the latest pilot cluster appears to show that the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) has not taken to heart the lesson from the controversial quarantine policy for air crew adopted in April.
Dubbed “3+11,” the policy called for three days of isolation and 11 days of self-health management for pilots and flight crew. While the government insisted there was not a lack of stringent requirements for air crew, the public perception is that it was a loophole that let the virus slip through the nation’s borders.
A local outbreak soon erupted following a cluster of infections involving pilots staying at the Novotel Taipei Taoyuan International Airport hotel, with the viral genome sequencing of several cases showing that they contracted the same strain of the Alpha variant of SARS-CoV-2.
The outbreak eventually led to more than 14,900 COVID-19 cases, claimed more than 800 lives and on May 19 placed the nation under a level 3 COVID-19 alert. Prior to May 19, the number of confirmed cases was 1,133, with 14 deaths.
The latest pilot incident brings on a feeling of deja vu.
Since Aug. 28, three pilots have tested positive for COVID-19, with all three classified as breakthrough cases. On Sept. 3, the son of one of the pilots also contracted the virus, leading to the two-week closure of the high school he attends in Taoyuan.
Granted, the pilots had their share of the blame for breaching quarantine protocols, but the CECC had been relatively lax to begin with.
Unlike most countries that require 14 days quarantine for air crews, the CECC in June adopted a “5+9” policy — five days of isolation and nine days of self-health management — for unvaccinated crew members, and seven days of enhanced self-health management for those who were fully vaccinated. It was only in July that it changed the rules to “7+7” for unvaccinated crew members or those who have received only a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Following confirmation of the two pilots as breakthrough cases, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, on Wednesday last week announced that from Wednesday next week, quarantine rules for air crew would be tightened as the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 has become the dominant strain in many countries.
Just as many were wondering why wait 15 days to implement the new rules, confirmation that a son of one of the pilots has been infected prompted the CECC to advance the date to Friday last week.
The newest measures mean that for long-haul flights, crew members who are not fully vaccinated would have to quarantine at home for seven days, followed by seven days of enhanced self-health management, while fully vaccinated crew are to quarantine for five days followed by nine days of enhanced self-health management. For short-haul flights, crew members who are not fully vaccinated are to observe 14 days of enhanced self-health management, while fully vaccinated crew members need to observe self- health management for seven days.
However, are these measures enough? Even air crew members are apprehensive.
On Thursday last week, the Taoyuan Union of Pilots issued a statement calling on the CECC to adopt two full weeks of quarantine for air crew as it does for regular travelers, and to consider administering booster shots for pilots and cabin crew to strike a balance between keeping the virus out and promoting economic development.
While the public has by and large duly observed non-pharmaceutical intervention measures, the outbreak in May suggests that any small loophole in border control could easily result in a flare-up of COVID-19 cases. The problem is compounded by the still large number of unvaccinated people in the nation.
As of Sunday, the nation’s first-dose coverage was 44.31 percent, and full two-dose coverage was 4.18 percent, CECC data showed. That compares with Singapore’s 78.3 percent and 76.4 percent, and Japan’s 58.3 percent and 47.3 percent respectively.
That the three pilots are breakthrough cases means that the majority of the public remains vulnerable in the face of the more infectious Delta variant whether they have had a single or two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The viral genomic sequencing of the two pilots and the son of one of them showed that they were infected by the Delta variant. The polymerase chain reaction tests of the 2,800 teachers, students and their family members have so far been negative.
“We can breathe a sigh of relief,” Chen said, but can Taiwan count on luck every time?
A study by the Israeli Ministry of Health showed that after two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, their effectiveness in preventing infection with the Delta variant was 39 percent, while administering a third shot would raise the level of protection by 2.5 times.
The Israeli government early last month began urging citizens older than 50 to get a third booster shot.
US President Joe Biden last month also vowed to begin third booster shots from Sept. 20, pending federal authorization.
With third booster shots poised to become a global trend, what is the CECC’s vaccination plan for the public, many of whom have not even had a single shot.
“Strategic foresight offers the tools for successful policymaking in the face of high uncertainty,” said a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on the COVID-19 crisis dated June 10 last year. “This involves exploring and preparing for a diversity of possible developments in order to future-proof strategies, identify new potential opportunities and challenges, and design innovative ways of improving well-being under rapidly evolving circumstances.”
Hopefully, the CECC will heed the suggestions and err on the side of caution by implementing more stringent measures and anticipatory actions.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not