The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 21 local COVID-19 cases, including 10 workers at a technology plant in New Taipei City’s Shulin District (樹林).
The 21 local infections comprise 11 cases in New Taipei City, five in Keelung, four in Kaohsiung and one in Taoyuan, said Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is also the CECC spokesman.
Nine cases in New Taipei City and the one in Taoyuan are linked to a cluster at a technology plant in Shulin District, where 10 workers were on Thursday and Friday found to have COVID-19.
Photo courtesy of the Keelung City Government
The company is continuing to test its 900 employees, Chuang said, adding that contact tracing is ongoing to find the source of infection.
One of the other cases in New Taipei City is a man in his 20s living in Jhonghe District (中和), who had a fever, runny nose and sore throat on Thursday before testing positive, Chuang said.
The man is not a close contact of any previous case, although he lives near a case reported on Friday, he added.
Another new case in New Taipei City is a woman in Sanchong District (三重) who tested positive on Friday in a self-paid test before being hospitalized, he said.
The five cases in Keelung are linked to a cluster of infections reported on Friday involving police officers, Chuang said.
Those cases include one police officer, a friend of a previous case, and three people who ate at a restaurant at about the same time as previous cases, he said.
The four local cases in Kaohsiung are linked to a previous cluster reported on Thursday among workers at a chemical plant, comprising three other workers and one family member.
Two of them tested positive while in isolation, Chuang said, adding that the infection source is yet to be determined.
Taiwan yesterday also reported 82 imported COVID-19 infections, Chuang said.
Meanwhile, a gift worth up to NT$200 is being offered until Thursday to people aged 18 or older when receiving a first or second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, Chuang said.
Taiwan’s first, second and booster dose vaccination rates have reached 83.36 percent, 78.18 percent and 49.1 percent respectively as of Friday, he said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS