Starting from April 8, people aged 65 and older, indigenous people aged 55 to 64, children younger than six months old and people who are immunocompromised would be eligible for a booster shot of a vaccine against the JN.1 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday.
The booster shot should only be taken 180 days after their previous shot, CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑惠) said.
While a vaccine of the JN.1 variant was administered as of Oct. 1 last year, its protection wanes over time, she said.
Photo courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control
The CDC cited the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines that people in the targeted groups receive another booster shot.
The immunocompromised group includes people undergoing or who have undergone immunosuppressive therapy, chemotherapy or radiation therapy within the past year or who are taking immunosuppressive medication; people who have had organ transplant or stem-cell transplant surgery; people who have medium or severe congenital immunodeficiency; people who are on dialysis; those who have HIV; and other cases as deemed necessary by a doctor, Tseng said.
Six new severe cases of COVID-19 and one death were reported last week, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said.
From September last year to yesterday, 522 cases of severe local cases of COVID-19 were reported, 112 of which resulted in death, Lee said.
Most cases involved people aged 65 and older or those with chronic diseases, she said.
All new strains reported over the past four weeks were of the SARS-CoV-2 XEC variant, including the JN.1, LP.8.1 and others, she said.
CDC data showed that 2.04 million people have been vaccinated against JN.1, 1.91 million of which used Moderna vaccines and 127,000 used Novavax vaccines.
The nation has a sufficient supply of JN.1 vaccines, with Moderna and Novavax options available for people aged 12 and older, Lee said, adding that children aged six months to 11 years old would only be vaccinated with Moderna vaccines.
Hospitals reported 108,000 emergency room visits for influenza-like illnesses last week, indicating a downward trend, the CDC said.
Emergency rooms admitted 211,000 people with diarrhea-like illnesses, down 18.4 percent from the previous week, but still the highest for the same period over the past five years, it said.
The number of diarrhea clusters in the past four weeks, 242, is also the highest for the same period, it said.
Most outbreaks occur at hotels and eateries, with the majority, 98.7 percent, affected by norovirus, it said, urging people to take necessary precautions.
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
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