The daily number of COVID-19 cases is expected to drop below 10,000 next week, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported 16,911 new local cases and 64 deaths.
Yesterday’s local caseload was 17.2 percent lower than on Wednesday last week, while the daily number of new local cases has been lower than a week earlier for 19 consecutive days, indicating that the local outbreak is slowing down, the center said.
Most of the new local cases were in New Taipei City, at 3,168, and the other five special municipalities, with cases ranging from 1,962 to 1,395. The remaining 16 cities and counties reported 712 to three cases each.
As a physician had said on Facebook that the daily number of new local cases might shrink to below 10,000 next week, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), the CECC’s spokesperson, confirmed that it is likely.
As the number of daily new cases has recently been dropping by about 17 to 18 percent from a week earlier, and with the 228 Peace Memorial Day long weekend coming up, the daily caseload is estimated to be between 9,500 and 10,000 on Monday next week, he said.
The CECC also reported 339 imported cases and 64 deaths.
Of the deaths, 60 people had had cancer or other underlying health conditions, 43 were aged 80 or older, and 40 people did not receive a vaccine booster, including 35 who were unvaccinated, CECC data showed.
Separately at a handover ceremony yesterday morning, Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) said that new CDC Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) would be responsible for completing COVID-19-related operations, which would not be an easy job.
As it would include amending the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法) before the Special Act on COVID-19 Prevention, Relief and Restoration (嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎防治及紓困振興特別條例) becomes ineffective at the end of June, the CDC would need to draft amendments and obtain the Cabinet and Legislative Yuan’s approval within four months, he said.
Chuang not only has expertise as a physician, but also in public health and medical information, so over the past three years he often set up simulations to predict how the COVID-19 situation would develop, of which more than 90 percent were accurate, Hsueh said.
Although the COVID-19 outbreak has slowed down and restrictions are being eased, disease prevention efforts cannot stop, and people now understand how diseases can affect national security and social stability, Chuang said.
Therefore, the CDC must continue to review and learn from the experiences of the past three years to be prepared for the next possible pandemic, he said.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS