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.
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
Taiwan is planning to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based X-ray imaging to customs clearance points over the next four years to curb the smuggling of contraband, a Customs Administration official said. The official on condition of anonymity said the plan would cover meat products, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, large bundles of banknotes and certain agricultural produce. Taiwan began using AI image recognition systems in July 2021. This year, generative AI — a subset of AI which uses generative models to produce data — would be used to train AI models to produce realistic X-ray images of contraband, the official
RSS