The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday held its last news conference ahead of its dissolution on Monday next week, when COVID-19 would be downgraded from a category 5 to a category 4 notifiable communicable disease.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the center, told the news conference that 99 people had developed severe complications of COVID-19 over the previous seven days — up from 93 in the previous seven-day period — and 13 people had died from the disease.
Since March 20, the number of severe COVID-19 infections has remained virtually stable at its lowest point this year, Wang said.
Photo: CNA
After Monday next week, all updates on COVID-19, along with other diseases, would be made during the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) weekly news briefing on Tuesdays, he said.
The CDC would continue to recommend that people receive at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot this year to boost their immunity, Wang said.
The center has not made a decision on whether COVID-19 vaccines would be needed next year, he said.
Photo: CNA
The CECC was formed by the CDC on Jan. 20, 2020, following the spread of the then-unknown disease first reported by authorities in Wuhan, China, on Dec. 31, 2019.
The nation reported its first COVID-19 case on Jan. 21, 2020, a Taiwanese national returning from Wuhan, and had recorded more than 10.15 million cases as of March 10, before the definition of COVID-19 cases to be reported was limited to those with serious complications on March 20, health ministry data showed.
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