The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 43,040 new local COVID-19 infections, an increase of 12.8 percent from a week earlier, and outlined why it should not yet be dismissed.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), the CECC’s spokesman, said 43,040 new local cases, 45 imported cases and 48 deaths were confirmed yesterday.
The daily local caseload was slightly lower than the day before, but there were 4,883 cases, or about 12.8 percent, more than Saturday last week, Chuang said.
New daily local cases have been higher than the week-earlier numbers for six consecutive days, CECC data showed.
Chuang said that 170 new moderate cases and 57 severe cases were confirmed yesterday, and as of Friday, an accumulated 6,411,864 local infections have been reported this year, with 28,187 among them moderate to severe, including 10,247 deaths.
He added that 99.56 percent of all cases were asymptomatic or mild.
A total of 7,136 vaccine doses were administered to children aged six months to four years on Friday, with the first and second dose vaccination rates of the age group reaching 39.6 and 9 percent respectively, he said.
Separately, as border control measures would mostly be lifted and a quarantine mandate scrapped by Oct. 13, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers asked if the CECC should be dismissed, adding that otherwise it might become another “campaign headquarters” for former minister of health and welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), the Democratic Progressive Party’s Taipei mayoral candidate.
Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) said that “somebody must be dreaming” when he was asked about the “campaign headquarters” fears.
Many COVID-19 prevention guidelines, administrative orders, and emergency use authorizations (EUA) for vaccines, antiviral drugs and rapid test kits are “tied to” the CECC, so it should not be dismissed at once, but it can be downgraded as the COVID-19 situation allows, Hsueh said.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the CECC, said if it is dismissed, the EUAs would be invalid and products with them would need to be recalled.
The ministry has urged manufacturers to apply for full permits for their products and has asked government agencies to set expiration dates for the EUAs, Wang said.
The CECC has kept itself politically neutral and would not comment on matters that are not pertinent to the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, adding that its operations, including vaccine rollouts and watching for new variants, would continue.
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