The nation’s single-day COVID-19 case number exceeded 40,000 for the first time yesterday, as the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) reported 46,536 new cases and 11 deaths.
Of the new tally, 46,377 were domestic cases and 159 were from abroad, the center said.
Seven men and four women in their 40s to 90s died between April 30 and Wednesday, after testing positive between April 24 and Tuesday, CECC data showed.
Photo: CNA
Five of those who died were unvaccinated, included the youngest, a woman in her 40s who had a history of chronic lung disease and was recently treated for sepsis, the CECC said.
Nine of the people who died were older than 60 and had underlying medical conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, chronic lung disease and coronary artery disease, it said.
One of them was a man in his 50s, who had a history of stroke and chronic lung disease, and had received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, it said.
Among the new COVID-19 cases, eight were classified as severe infections, while 44 were moderate, the center said.
Of the 242,256 domestic cases recorded from Jan. 1 to Friday, 504 have been classified as moderate infections and 85 as severe, accounting for 0.21 and 0.04 percent of the total respectively, CECC data showed.
The rest of the cases either had no or only mild symptoms, the CECC said.
Yesterday, New Taipei City reported the highest number of cases at 16,670, followed by Taipei with 9,245, Taoyuan with 6,882, Taichung with 2,517 and Kaohsiung with 2,163.
Keelung reported 1,910 cases, Tainan 1,352, Yilan County 840, Hualien County 803, Hsinchu County 788, Pingtung County 584, Changhua County 517, Hsinchu City 457, Yunlin County 369, Miaoli County 338, Nantou County 266, Taitung County 261 and Chiayi County 188.
Chiayi City reported 110 cases, Penghu County 74, Lienchiang County 22 and Kinmen County 21.
Of the 159 imported cases, 56 were people who tested positive upon arrival in Taiwan, the CECC said.
The CECC has confirmed 314,983 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began in early 2020, including 303,118 domestically transmitted infections.
A total of 907 COVID-19 deaths have been recorded, including 54 so far this year.
SELF-RELIANCE: Taiwan would struggle to receive aid in the event of an invasion, so it must prepare to ‘hold its own’ for the first 70 days of a war, a defense expert said Taiwan should strengthen infrastructure, stock up on reserves and step up efforts to encourage Taiwanese to fight against an enemy, legislators and experts said on Tuesday last week. The comments sought to summarize what the nation should learn from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has exceeded 300 days, since Feb. 24 last year. Institute of National Defense and Security Research fellow Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said that the war in Ukraine highlighted the importance of being ready for war. Taiwan’s development of an “asymmetrical warfare” doctrine and extending mandatory conscription to one year is a good start to preparation of defense against a
The Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday said it would delay the lifting of the indoor mask mandate, citing public health considerations and ongoing discussions on how the policy should be implemented. Earlier this week, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, said officials from several ministries were working on the policy and an announcement would be made yesterday. However, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the CECC, yesterday said that the policy was still under review. Wang said its implementation would be “delayed slightly” due to three main factors. First, the center
END OF SERIES: As the first generation of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines are set to expire, the CECC would no longer offer them to children younger than four years old The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported the nation’s first case of a person infected with the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2. The Taiwanese man in his 20s arrived from Canada on Jan. 22, said Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), who is deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division. He tested positive after reporting having a runny nose and muscle soreness while in airport quarantine, Lo said. The XBB.1.5 subvariant is the dominant strain in the US, but there is no evidence to suggest that it causes more severe illness than other Omicron subvariants, he said,
NORMALIZING TIES: The delegation led by the KMT’s Johnny Chiang is to meet with British lawmakers, think tanks and business groups to discuss developments A legislative delegation led by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) arrived in the UK yesterday to rally support for Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Chiang heads the Legislative Yuan’s Taiwan-UK Interparliamentary Amity Association. The delegation also includes KMT legislators Ma Wen-chun (馬文君), Wen Yu-hsia (溫玉霞), Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷), Sandy Yu (游毓蘭) and Wu I-ding (吳怡玎). The group is to meet with British lawmakers Alicia Kearns, who chairs the British House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee; Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the House Defence Select Committee; and Bob Stewart, who cochairs the