Most of Taiwan’s 672 local COVID-19 cases this year involved the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, and patients aged 12 or younger mostly had different symptoms from older people, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
While 590 of the local cases where adolescents or adults, 82 of those infected were children aged 12 or younger, said Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division.
About 63 percent of the infected children had fevers and coughs, while only about 20 percent of adolescents and adults had a fever, he said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
However, gathering data is difficult, as younger children often cannot describe their symptoms, he said.
Infected children rarely described muscle aches, shivers or loss of smell, likely due to their inability to describe the symptoms, he said.
The CECC yesterday reported 18 domestically transmitted cases, included a high-school student in Tainan, Lo said, adding that the city’s health authorities ordered the school to temporarily close for disinfection.
Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) said that 145 people had been identified as contacts of the girl, adding that 134 of them have been ordered to quarantine and 11 have been ordered to observe self-health management protocols.
The protocols require listed contacts of COVID-19 cases to wear masks at all times outside and avoid situations where they might come into close contact with others.
Huang said that 210 secondary contacts of the student had undergone COVID-19 tests, but so far none of them tested positive.
The student, who lives in Kaohsiung, was tested along with her parents on Thursday, after a friend of hers tested positive the day before, he said.
From Monday to Wednesday, the student attended a winter camp, potentially coming in contact with many children under the age of 12, Huang said.
Separately, the New Taipei City Government yesterday highlighted another case reported yesterday with a potentially large number of contacts, a worker at a Kebuke tea shop.
It was the second case at the branch, after another worker was confirmed to have COVID-19 on Thursday, and it remains unknown where the two contracted the virus, the city government said.
New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said health authorities discovered the second case when testing close contacts of the first case at the outlet.
However, only one of the first case’s 19 close contacts identified so far tested positive, Hou said, adding that contact tracing would continue, including in southern Taiwan, where the case traveled during the Lunar New Year holiday.
The CECC yesterday also reported 61 imported cases, arrivals from Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Mexico, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, the UK, the United Arab Emirates, the US and Vietnam.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and