The first case of the COVID-19 subvariant dubbed “Delta plus” has been recorded in Taiwan, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) told a news briefing yesterday.
AY.4.2, which is a mutation of the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, was discovered in April last year through gene sequencing and was believed to have triggered an increase in COVID-19 cases in the UK.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said that the imported case is a male British citizen who arrived in Taiwan from the UK on Friday last week.
Photo courtesy of the Central Epidemic Command Center
The man, who is in his 50s, checked in at a government-run quarantine center and was immediately tested upon arrival, per Taiwanese regulations pertaining to the UK’s status as a “high risk” area, Lo said.
The test results came back positive with a cycle threshold (CT) value of 19, indicating a high viral load, with the virus later determined via gene sequencing to be AY.4.2, Lo said.
The man had received two shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine before coming to Taiwan.
Displaying atypical presentation, the man is isolating at a hospital and poses no threat to the local community, he added.
The AY.4.2 variant has been detected in 42 countries, including the UK, the US, Canada and Australia, he said.
Israel and Thailand have also reported their first AY.4.2 cases, Lo said.
There is little information on the virus strain, other than it is 10 percent more transmissible than the original Delta variant, he added.
The CECC yesterday reported five imported COVID-19 cases, and no local infections or deaths.
It further eased mask requirements imposed to combat COVID-19, but with certain preconditions.
Television talk show commentators, program show hosts, lecturers at schools, and people delivering speeches at events will no longer have to wear masks if social distancing is observed or plastic dividers are available, said Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), deputy head of the center.
However, temperature checks and identification requirements at the entrances of venues will remain in place, he said.
Asked whether food sampling at malls, department stores and night markets would be allowed, Lo said the CECC supports the idea, but a final decision will be made by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
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