The border reopening plan remains unchanged, even though 49,509 new domestic COVID-19 infections were reported, the second-highest since the wave of cases involving the Omicron BA.5 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2 began in August, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, said that 49,509 new local cases, 65 imported cases and 31 deaths were confirmed yesterday.
He said the local daily caseload was 8.6 percent higher than that reported on Tuesday last week and the second-highest daily count of the Omicron BA.5 outbreak, only slightly lower than the peak of 49,540 cases reported on Sept. 14.
Photo: CNA
The CECC previously predicted that the peak of the Omicron BA.5 outbreak had passed and Chuang, when asked if the peak could be in the next few days, said it was possible, but generally the situation is at a plateau.
He said the fluctuations in daily caseloads has not affected plans for the nation’s border to be reopened on Thursday next week.
CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said 9,219 courses of oral antiviral drugs — 7,291 courses of Paxlovid and 1,928 courses of molnupiravir — were prescribed on Monday, the highest number since August.
There is still about one month of Paxlovid and three months of molnupiravir in stock, so physicians do not have to worry about prescribing the antivirals to patients who are eligible to take them, he said, adding that the CECC had already ordered 400,000 more courses of Paxlovid which are expected to arrive in batches starting this week.
Meanwhile, on Monday it was reported that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party legislators had questioned why the CDC proposed an exceptionally high disease prevention budget of NT$84.5 billion (US$2.66 billion) for next year, which is about four-and-a-half times the NT$18.7 billion budget this year.
In response, Chuang said that COVID-19 prevention and response funding in the past three years came mainly from the NT$840 billion special budget allocated based on the Special Act for Prevention, Relief and Revitalization Measures for Severe Pneumonia with Novel Pathogens (嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎防治及紓困振興特別條例), but that the prevention and response budget for next year must be included in the CDC’s annual operating budget.
He said that the COVID-19 prevention and response budget allocated this year was NT$94.3 billion — NT$75.6 billion from the special budget and NT$18.7 billion from the CDC’s annual operating budget — so the proposed budget of NT$84.5 billion is actually NT$9.8 billion less than this year.
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
Trips for more than 100,000 international and domestic air travelers could be disrupted as China launches a military exercise around Taiwan today, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday. The exercise could affect nearly 900 flights scheduled to enter the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) during the exercise window, it added. A notice issued by the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration showed there would be seven temporary zones around the Taiwan Strait which would be used for live-fire exercises, lasting from 8am to 6pm today. All aircraft are prohibited from entering during exercise, it says. Taipei FIR has 14 international air routes and
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
RSS