The official name of COVID-19 in Taiwan would be changed to “COVID-19 with severe complications” (新冠併發重症) starting next month, with a revised definition for COVID-19 cases that must be reported, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday.
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the CDC was uncertain what to officially call the disease, so it named it “severe pneumonia with novel pathogens” (嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎), CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said.
After more than four years since the start of the pandemic and observing international trends of monitoring the disease, the CDC would align its reporting and monitoring approach for COVID-19 with that of influenza, Lo said.
Photo: CNA
Referencing the official name of influenza in Taiwan, “influenza with severe complications” (流感併發重症), COVID-19’s official name would be changed to “COVID-19 with severe complications” on Sept. 1, he said.
From that same date, the requirement for reporting COVID-19 cases to the CDC would be adjusted to the clinical criteria of “having a fever of 38°C or higher, or respiratory infection symptoms followed by pneumonia or other complications within 14 days, requiring intensive care unit treatment or resulting in death.”
The intensive care unit requirement is new, Lo said.
The reporting period for those cases would be extended from 72 hours to one week, he said, adding that once the new measure is implemented, “infection control staff in hospitals would no longer need to work overtime to report [cases to the CDC] during holidays or weekends.”
After Sept. 1, the number of weekly reported cases would likely account for approximately 5 to 10 percent of the current number of weekly reported cases, he said.
The changes would not affect a person’s eligibility to receive publicly funded medication, Lo said.
Remdesivir and other oral antiviral drugs would continue to be covered by public funding, “with no distinction between reported and unreported cases regarding coverage,” he said.
Meanwhile, 274 new local COVID-19 hospitalizations were recorded between Tuesday last week and Monday, down from 347 cases the previous week, Aug. 6 to Monday last week, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said.
Deaths related to COVID-19 also fell from 57 to 45 last week, Lee said.
The weekly number of local COVID-19 hospitalizations has been declining for six consecutive weeks, and the CDC expects to announce the end of the sixth COVID-19 epidemic period in Taiwan next week, Lo said.
In addition, four local cases of mpox were reported last week, but the viral strain of the disease differs from the one that led the CDC to raise its travel alert for seven African countries on Thursday last week due to an ongoing outbreak, the centers said.
All four cases involved an mpox virus strain called clade IIb, different from clade Ib — the strain reported in Africa and Sweden that “everyone is most concerned about,” Lo said.
The WHO on Wednesday last week declared the mpox outbreak in Africa a public health emergency of international concern.
Last week, 807 people in Taiwan were vaccinated against mpox, a 35 percent increase from the previous week, Lo said.
A meeting would be convened today between experts to discuss mpox prevention strategies and adjusting target vaccination groups, Lo said.
‘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
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
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as