The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 133 local COVID-19 infections, including 52 cases with unknown origins, and 142 imported cases.
The 133 cases cover 11 cities and counties, with New Taipei City reporting the most cases at 46, followed by Keelung with 31 and Taipei with 23, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center.
Chen added that a new moderate COVID-19 case was confirmed on Sunday — a man in his 20s who has underlying health conditions, received a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine more than five months ago, and was diagnosed with moderate pneumonia.
Photo courtesy of the Central Epidemic Command Center
The man is being treated with high-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy, Remdesivir and steroids, Chen said.
As of Sunday, among the 1,713 local cases reported this year, 1,709 people (99.77 percent) had no or mild symptoms, and four (0.23 percent) experienced moderate to severe illness from COVID-19, including one death, he said.
With regard to healthcare capacity, Chen said the current bed availability rate in designated COVID-19 hospital rooms and negative isolation wards — for patients with moderate to severe illness — is 68.3 percent — 42.7 percent at centralized quarantine facilities and 7.5 percent at local enhanced disease prevention hotels.
Photo: CNA
Centralized quarantine facilities will slowly clear out about 90 percent of their beds for admitting people with no or mild symptoms, and local governments have been asked to offer at least 50 enhanced disease prevention hotel rooms and an additional two rooms per 10,000 population, he said.
Asked about the CECC’s announcement on Sunday that people with no or mild symptoms can isolate in the same room, which has sparked concern about cross-infection, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy chief of the CECC’s medical response division, said the risk was extremely low.
There are people who have contracted different variants of SARS-CoV-2, but studies suggest that most people infected with the Omicron BA.1 subvariant developed immunity against the Omicron BA.2 subvariant, and an analysis of more than 2 million patients in Denmark found that only 47 people contracted both the BA.1 and BA.2 subvariants of Omicron.
As the vast majority of recent cases were infected with the Omicron variant, and people who contracted different variants do not have severe symptoms and are treated with the same medication, the CECC specialists’ meeting agreed that two patients can be isolated in the same room, he said, adding that the policy might be revised if new variants are detected or if healthcare capacity is further expanded.
Chen also reiterated that the center’s disease prevention strategy is “for people to live normal lives while proactively preventing infection.”
Living normal lives means a lockdown will not be imposed, but people will still need to practice nonpharmaceutical interventions, including wearing a mask and social distancing, he said, adding that facilities and individuals must learn to quickly respond if there are confirmed cases.
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