Physicians and a public health specialist urged people to remain extra cautious and practice disease prevention measures, as they believe the number of COVID-19 infections might increase after the Lunar New Year holiday.
The local COVID-19 situation would be closely monitored as family reunions and traveling during the holiday might cause the virus to spread faster across the nation, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), said on Friday.
Although the incubation period for the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 is shorter, the center must monitor the situation for at least seven to 10 days, or from Monday last week to Thursday, he said.
On Saturday, Chiang Kuan-yu (姜冠宇), an attending physician at Taipei City Hospital’s Zhongxing branch, wrote on Facebook that people who have a higher risk of becoming seriously ill with COVID-19 and are unwilling to get vaccinated, but who joined family members during the holiday, should be especially careful after people return to work.
During the holiday, many people met with family and department stores were crowded with shoppers, while contact tracing and testing is to resume at a regular level after people return to work, so the number of local cases might increase after the holiday, he wrote.
Citing a recently published study, Chiang said that many people in South Africa developed immunity against COVID-19 in previous waves of infection and many were vaccinated, meaning that the severity of the Omicron variant among those without immunity might be underestimated.
People should not think of getting infected with the Omicron variant as a “natural vaccine,” he said, adding that getting a booster dose of the vaccine is crucial.
Separately on Saturday, a physician surnamed Kung (孔), who worked in Taiwan University Hospital’s infectious disease division and uses the pseudonym Lin Shi-bi (林氏壁) on social media, wrote on Facebook that while many local cases reported during the holiday tested positive during isolation and are linked to known clusters, he remains concerned.
Fewer polymerase chain reaction tests were conducted during the holiday than in previous weeks, and some people who had symptoms during the holiday might have waited to be tested, he wrote, adding that the challenge would begin after the holiday.
People who have respiratory symptoms should get tested for COVID-19 so that the authorities can understand whether the Omicron variant has spread within local communities, he wrote.
The situation should be monitored for one to two weeks, he added.
The United Daily News yesterday cited National Taiwan University College of Public Health professor Tony Chen (陳秀熙) as saying that the next wave of infections might occur between the beginning and middle of next month, so people should be prepared.
Chen said that by then, the immunity of many people who received a second dose of the Moderna or the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines would have waned.
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