The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said that it has not detected signs of people avoiding COVID-19 diagnosis for fear of being isolated and prevented from voting on Saturday.
The center yesterday reported 17,841 new local cases, 51 imported cases and 31 deaths. The local caseload was 21 percent lower than that of Wednesday last week.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the CECC, said that there has been rising concern that some people might hide their condition to avoid being placed under isolation and not being able to vote on Saturday.
Photo: Hung Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
However, statistics do not bear this out, Wang said at the center’s regular news conference.
The weekly caseload was about 128,000 last week, and in line with the downward trend, Wang said the CECC projected that there would be about 105,000 to 110,000 new local cases this week, or an average of 15,000 to 16,000 cases per day.
“About 18,000 new local cases were reported yesterday and about 17,000 cases today, so the trend appears to be normal, with no significant drop in case numbers,” he said. “We do not see signs of cases not being reported because of the upcoming elections.”
Wang was asked about a newspaper report that the nation’s average COVID-19 case fatality rate in the past two weeks of 2.43 per million was the third highest in the world, and that the average new cases in the past seven days was the ninth highest.
Wang said the common practice is to observe the long-term case fatality rate of a country, rather than picking a short period when the country is at a peak period of a local outbreak, when it would often be higher than other countries.
CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), the CECC spokesman, said that the peaks of caseloads this year were 7,714 cases per million people on March 19 in South Korea, 1,791 cases per million people on Aug. 23 in Japan and 3,451 cases per million people on May 25 in Taiwan.
Taiwan’s local outbreaks have occurred later than most countries, and it has only experienced its second large-scale local outbreak this year, while most other countries have already experienced several waves, Wang said.
Making a judgement based on the fatality rates and caseloads within a short period is a “scientifically illiterate” method, as rankings could fluctuate drastically using short periods as the basis for comparison, he said.
Showing a chart of accumulated case fatality rates in Taiwan and members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development from the start of the pandemic until Tuesday, Wang said that Taiwan’s accumulated case fatality rate was 0.17 per million, the sixth lowest in the world, or 592.7 deaths per million people, which was the fifth lowest.
The daily number of deaths is a lagging indicator, trailing the number of new cases by two to four weeks, Wang said.
As Taiwan earlier experienced a plateau of cases for about five weeks, the daily number of deaths has, in line with the trend, recently declined, he said.
Some people selectively pick data to mislead the public about the nation’s disease prevention performance, Wang said, asking why they are trying to undermine the results, which are a product of the combined efforts of all Taiwanese.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
RSS