The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported four imported COVID-19 infections, but no local cases or deaths, as it unexpectedly called off its 2pm daily news conference.
Since a local outbreak started in mid-May, the CECC has held a news conference at 2pm every day to report on the COVID-19 situation and policy updates, with the exceptions of the Double Ten National Day and a typhoon day last month.
However, the center at 12:43pm informed reporters that the daily news conference would be canceled, as Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩), who heads its disease surveillance division, had to attend a joint meeting of the legislative committees.
Photo: CNA
Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), who is the deputy head of the center, and CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, also had to attend a meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee, it added.
As CDC Deputy Director-
General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, was also on official duty, the news conference had to be called off, the center said.
At 2pm, the CECC issued a news release and a video in which Lo spoke about the latest developments.
The four imported cases were travelers who between Oct. 6 and Sunday arrived from Hungary, Indonesia, the Philippines and the US, Lo said.
Three of them were vaccine breakthrough cases, Lo said, adding that one of them had received a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine and a second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, while the other two had received two doses each of the Sinovac vaccine.
The other imported case tested positive for COVID-19 in the US in the middle of August, Lo said.
The woman received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, one each before and after her infection, Lo said, adding that due to the circumstances, the case is not considered a vaccine breakthrough infection.
Meanwhile, a total of 319,747 vaccine doses were administered on Tuesday, bringing the nation’s first-dose vaccination coverage to 64.29 percent, or 87.67 doses administered per 100 people, CECC data showed.
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