Daily local COVID-19 cases are expected to remain below 10,000 over the next few days, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, while the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ latest meeting approved compensation from NT$5,000 to NT$600,000 (US$162 to US$19,450) to 19 people who experienced “adverse events” following COVID-19 vaccination.
There were 8,444 new local infections, 174 imported cases and 48 deaths reported yesterday, and local cases were 24.4 percent lower than on Saturday last week, the CECC said.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), who is also CECC spokesperson, said that daily local cases would continue to drop, and the CECC expects the local case count to remain below 10,000 per day this week.
As no new variant of SARS-CoV-2 has been detected recently, it is very unlikely that the daily case counts would suddenly rise, he added.
As the CECC on Thursday announced that people with mild cases would no longer need to report or self-isolate as of Monday next week, some healthcare providers asked whether government-funded testing would be discontinued.
However, testing conducted at healthcare facilities would still be covered by the government, Lo said, adding that if the disease is downgraded from a category five to a category four notifiable communicable disease, the testing fee might be covered by the National Health Insurance.
Separately, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices agreed to offer compensation to 19 cases out of 122 reviewed, its Feb. 23 meeting minutes show.
Of the 19 people, the highest compensations were NT$600,000 and NT$500,000, granted to two women in their 40s who suffered thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) — blood clotting combined with low platelet count — after receiving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
One of the cases was a woman from Taoyuan surnamed Chen (陳), who sought treatment for a fever and headache eight days after getting vaccinated. Her test results showed she had TTS, and as the committee determined it to be associated with the vaccine, it said it would provide NT$600,000 in compensation.
The other case was a woman from Taichung surnamed Lai (賴), who suffered shortness of breath and bleeding gums 15 days after her vaccination. She was also diagnosed with TTS, and would be offered NT$500,000 in compensation.
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