Cases of influenza are expected to peak this week, with hospital visits expected to climb to 100,000, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, advising people to get vaccinated and protect themselves during the holidays next month.
Hospitals last week reported 94,882 outpatient and emergency room visits for the flu, a 16.6 percent increase over the previous week, agency data showed.
Twenty-three flu cases with serious complications were reported last week, CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) said, adding that the nation could enter an epidemic period this week.
Photo courtesy of the Nantou County Public Health Bureau
Hospital visits could reach as high as 100,000 weekly, she said, encouraging the public to get vaccinated.
Last week’s cases with severe complications brought the total to 350 from Oct. 1 to Monday, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said.
Fifty-seven percent of those were people aged 65 or older, Lee said.
The end of the year means people are traveling, gathering with family and friends and going out for activities while temperatures have fallen sharply, increasing the risk of a flu epidemic, Tseng said.
The number of outpatient and emergency room visits rose to 94,882 last week from 81,399 two weeks ago, she said.
The rate of emergency room visits increased to 10.8 percent, near the 11 percent threshold to classify an epidemic period, she added.
Among those confirmed to have the flu and flu-related deaths, more than 90 percent did not receive this year’s vaccine, while the number of people vaccinated is lower than the same period last year, CDC data showed.
People aged 65 or older had a vaccination rate of 43.9 percent, while preschool children had a rate of 62.2 percent, both lower than the CDC’s target, the agency said.
As vaccines usually take two weeks to provide effective protection, people should get vaccinated soon, especially elderly people and those in other high-risk groups, it said.
Meanwhile, 13 new cases of COVID-19 were reported last week, bringing the total number of cases between Sept. 1 to Monday to 411, with 92 deaths, Lee said.
Most of the people were aged 65 or older or had medical histories of chronic illness, she said.
Among the confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported since Oct. 1, 98 percent had not received the new JN.1 vaccine, Lee said.
A small number of Taiwanese this year lost their citizenship rights after traveling in China and obtaining a one-time Chinese passport to cross the border into Russia, a source said today. The people signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of neighboring Russia with companies claiming they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, the source said on condition of anonymity. The travelers were actually issued one-time-use Chinese passports, they said. Taiwanese are prohibited from holding a Chinese passport or household registration. If found to have a Chinese ID, they may lose their resident status under Article 9-1
PROCEDURE: Although there is already a cross-strait agreement in place for the extradition of criminals, ample notice is meant to be given to the other side first Ten Taiwanese who were involved in fraud-related crimes in China were extradited back to Taiwan via Kinmen County on Wednesday, four of whom are convicted fraudsters in Taiwan. The 10 people arrived via a ferry operating between Xiamen and Kinmen, also known as the “small three links.” The Kinmen County Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said that four of the 10 extradited people were convicted in Taiwan for committing fraud and contravening the Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法), and were on the wanted list. They were immediately arrested upon arrival and sent to Kinmen Prison to serve their sentences following brief questioning, the office said.
PROBLEMATIC APP: Citing more than 1,000 fraud cases, the government is taking the app down for a year, but opposition voices are calling it censorship Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday decried a government plan to suspend access to Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu (小紅書) for one year as censorship, while the Presidential Office backed the plan. The Ministry of the Interior on Thursday cited security risks and accusations that the Instagram-like app, known as Rednote in English, had figured in more than 1,700 fraud cases since last year. The company, which has about 3 million users in Taiwan, has not yet responded to requests for comment. “Many people online are already asking ‘How to climb over the firewall to access Xiaohongshu,’” Cheng posted on
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
RSS