The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 95 imported and two local COVID-19 cases. It is also expanding the age range for younger inbound travelers who test positive with no or mild symptoms, starting today.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, said the imported cases are 64 who tested positive at airports and 31 who tested positive during or upon ending quarantine.
Asked if two foreign visitors, who were invited to attend the 2022 Smart City Summit and Expo in Taipei under a quarantine-exempted “specialized bubble,” were among the cases, Chuang said they tested positive yesterday morning and are among the imported cases.
The two — a man from Poland and a woman from Paraguay — tested negative upon arrival on Monday, but tested positive in a second test yesterday morning.
The man was experiencing a cough and had a cycle threshold (Ct) value of 25, while the woman is asymptomatic with a Ct value of 36, he added.
Another participant at the expo, a woman from Belize, also tested positive on Tuesday, the day she arrived, he said.
One of the two local cases confirmed yesterday is a woman in her 40s from New Taipei City who tested positive at a hospital where she went to accompany a family member. She had a Ct value of 33.7.
The other is a family member of a previous case reported on Tuesday — a nurse at Taipei City Hospital’s Heping branch.
She developed a runny nose and sore throat on Tuesday, Chuang said, adding that she had a Ct value of 13.9.
CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said the policy of having some inbound travelers wait for their COVID-19 test results at the airport before they are allowed into the country has been implemented for more than two months.
A total of 320 cases were detected under the policy from Wednesday last week to Tuesday, an about 14 percent increase compared with the 280 cases detected the week before, he said.
Meanwhile, to use healthcare resources more efficiently, the CECC is expanding the criteria by which younger people with mild symptoms are arranged to stay in enhanced disease prevention hotels or centralized quarantine facilities, instead of a hospital, he said.
Lo said the existing criteria apply to people aged 20 to 49 with no or mild symptoms, and would be expanded to cover those aged 18 to 59, starting today.
Many imported cases were previous infections or students aged 18 or 19 from Southeast Asian countries who do not need much medical treatment, he said.
Other recent cases include business travelers, but the risk of severe COVID-19 in people in their 50s is also relatively low, and there are healthcare professionals in enhanced disease prevention hotels or centralized quarantine facilities, he added.
Separately, Chuang announced that the digital COVID-19 vaccination certificate system would be updated by 8am today, with a few new features, such as allowing users to register with a household registration number or passport number.
Developers also cooperated with Apple and Google to let users access their digital certificate by saving it in their Apple Wallets for iOS devices and the COVID Card API for Android devices, he added.
‘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
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
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
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RSS