Starting today, people with COVID-19 can send a family member or friend to a doctor on their behalf to obtain the oral antiviral drug Paxlovid, or any other medication if determined apporpiriate, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said the policy was created to allow patients with risk of developing severe symptoms to receive therapeutic medication in a timely manner.
Cases who qualify for Paxlovid, an oral antiviral drug for treating COVID-19, can ask a family member or friend who is not in quarantine or home isolation to visit a doctor to consult on their behalf, he said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The person should bring the National Health Insurance (NHI) card of the patient in question, along with evidence of a positive COVID-19 test, such as a digital COVID-19 certificate or a screenshot of the test-result page from the NHI app, he said.
If Paxlovid is prescribed, a person can take the prescription to one of 124 hospitals in Taiwan that carry the medication, Lo said.
Also starting yesterday, people in three-day home isolation, four-day self-health management or seven-day home quarantine who test positive for COVID-19 using a rapid antigen test can have their results officially confirmed in a virtual consultation with a physician.
Photo courtesy of Shinkong Wu Ho-su Memorial Hospital
Previously, a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test at a hospital was required to confirm the positive diagnosis.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, said yesterday that the new policy applies to rapid test kits that use nasal swabs, as well as saliva-based test kits that have been granted emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration.
The policy does not apply to rapid test kits that were obtained abroad, as they are not approved by the government, he added.
Photo courtesy of the CECC
Separately yesterday, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said that the local COVID-19 outbreak has not yet reached its peak, and that severe cases and deaths are expected to rise as the virus is spreading widely in communities.
Centers for Disease Control Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩), who also heads the CECC’s disease surveillance division, made the remarks at a weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday.
From Thursday last week to Wednesday, domestic COVID-19 cases rose by 302,754, a significant increase from 124,403 cases over the previous seven days, Chou said.
Imported cases this week were down 51 percent from the previous week, from 921 cases to 454, he said.
Among the 421,703 domestic cases this year, 894 cases had medium to severe symptoms, with 98 deaths, while 99.79 percent of the cases reported mild or no symptoms, he said.
The ministry is focusing on maintaining effective functioning of the medical system and reducing severe symptomatic cases and deaths.
The nation’s single-day COVID-19 cases exceeded 60,000 for the first time yesterday, with 65,446 new cases and 17 deaths, the CECC said, adding that 61 were imported.
The 17 people who died of COVID-19 were aged from their 60s to 90s. Fifteen had underlying medical conditions, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, stroke or cancer, CECC data showed.
Six of the cases had not received COVID-19 vaccination, while the others had one or more doses, the data showed.
The CECC also said that 61 people had developed moderate symptoms and 18 had developed severe symptoms.
New Taipei City yesterday reported the highest number of domestic cases — 23,788 — followed by Taipei with 10,751, Taoyuan with 10,039, Taichung with 3,830 and Kaohsiung with 3,261.
Tainan reported 2,332 cases, Keelung 1,876, Hsinchu County 1,348, Hualien County 1,259, Yilan County 1,186, Pingtung County 1,061, Changhua County 1,000, Hsinchu City 851, Miaoli County 760, Yunlin County 613, Taitung County 392, Chiayi County 362, Nantou County 354 and Chiayi City 172.
Kinmen County reported 78 cases, Penghu County 67 and the Matsu Islands five.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS