The government is on Friday to start a second round of distributing free rapid COVID-19 test kits for children aged six or younger, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported 28,489 new local infections, 91 deaths, and 61 imported cases of the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 of SARS-CoV-2.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesperson, said that parents of children aged six or younger (born on or after Sept. 2, 2015) can obtain a pack of five test kits by bringing their children’s National Health Insurance card to contracted pharmacies or public health centers that sell rapid test kits under the government’s rationing scheme.
As COVID-19 vaccination for children aged six or younger has not started, the center on June 1 launched the first round of distribution of free test kits, and as of Sunday, more than 780,000 packs — going to more than 60 percent of eligible recipients — have been collected, the center said.
Photo: CNA
The COVID-19 rapid tests are intended for children aged two or older, so parents who pick up the kits for a child who is younger than two can use the tests on themselves, but not on the child, it said.
The CECC yesterday reported 28,580 new COVID-19 infections — 28,489 local and 91 imported cases — which is about a 28 percent reduction compared with the day before.
Of the 91 deaths, 86 were people who had underlying health conditions and 59 had not received a vaccine booster, he added.
CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), who is deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said that the genome sequencing of virus samples collected from 120 imported cases who arrived between June 10 and June 18 revealed that 61 had the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants.
Fifty-three cases were infected with BA.5 and eight with BA.4, he said, adding that so far 107 cases of BA.5 and 19 cases of BA.4 have been detected in Taiwan, with 38 of the cases having arrived from the US, 15 from Germany and 10 from Singapore.
Genome sequencing of 443 virus samples collected from local cases last month and this month showed that all were infected with the BA.2 Omicron subvariant, indicating that the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants have not yet been detected among local cases, he said.
Separately, after Taiwan reported its first case of monkeypox last week, CDC physician Chen Wan-ching (陳婉青) yesterday asked the public to be aware of its symptoms.
He said that the incubation period for the disease in humans ranges from five to 21 days, but is usually six to 13 days.
Common symptoms include fever, chills, sweats, headache, muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes, exhaustion and rashes, she said, adding that rashes usually appear after one to three days of having a fever, and the rashes usually begin spreading from the face to the limbs, then to other parts of the body.
The rash goes through different stages — from flat spots to bumps and blisters, which eventually form scabs — before healing, and it can take up to 14 to 21 days until the scabs fall off, she said.
Monkeypox can be caught from directly touching infected animals; touching the body fluids, skin blisters or scabs of an infected person or objects they have interacted with; and the respiratory droplets of infected people during extended face-to-face contact, she said.
People can prevent monkeypox infection while traveling to areas where it is spreading by avoiding rodents and primates, including dead animals; only eating meat that has been thoroughly cooked; and avoiding close contact with people who appear unwell and might have monkeypox, Chen said.
People who believe they have symptoms of monkeypox should seek medical attention, and inform the physician of any recent travel and contact, she said.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS