The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 19 imported cases of COVID-19 and 14 newly confirmed cases of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), the CECC’s spokesman, said the imported cases are nine men and 10 women who arrived from Cambodia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Laos, Switzerland, Turkey, the US and Vietnam.
The case from Kazakhstan is a Taiwanese woman in her 20s, who traveled there to attend the Asian Karate Championships with a national team of 22 people.
Twelve members of the team have already tested positive for COVID-19, and were reported as confirmed cases on Sunday and Monday.
Meanwhile, genome sequencing results showed that 14 previously reported imported cases were infected with the Omicron variant, Chuang said, adding that a total of 48 imported Omicron cases have so far been identified in Taiwan.
Among the 14 new Omicron cases identified yesterday, seven are members of the Taiwanese karate team who returned from Kazakhstan, he said.
Among the 13 COVID-19 cases from the karate team, two had received one dose of a vaccine, and 11 had received a second dose between July and last month, Chuang said.
The center would ask the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to advise whether national sports teams traveling abroad should be allowed to receive a booster shot sooner than required after their second dose, he said.
The karate team members would be interviewed to determine the possible causes of infection, he added.
As the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) on Monday recommended that the isolation time for people who test positive for COVID-19 but have no symptoms be shortened from 10 days to five, requiring them to wear a mask around others for another five days, the CECC was asked if Taiwan might also shorten isolation and quarantine times.
As the US CDC had just issued the statement, the center would look into the related reference material and discuss it with the specialist advisory panel, Chuang said.
He said that 53,558 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered on Monday, bringing the nation’s first-dose vaccination rate to 79.83 percent, second-dose rate to 67.26 percent and third-dose rate to 0.45 percent.
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do