Taiwan has donated 10,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to two Caribbean allies to help them combat the pandemic, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Taiwan’s ambassadors to Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines donated the AstraZeneca doses to the local health ministers on Thursday and on Monday respectively, the ministry said in a statement.
The vaccine doses would support the health and welfare of the Caribbean nations’ residents, the ministry said, adding that it had been confirmed that Taiwan had enough AstraZeneca doses for its own use.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs via CNA
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) last week said that Taiwan has 2.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine that are to expire in May.
NEW CASES
In related news, the CECC yesterday reported 53 new cases of COVID-19 — eight locally transmitted and 45 that originated overseas — but no new deaths from the disease.
Two of the new domestic patients are linked to a cluster in Yilan County, while the other six are connected to a cluster involving a Kaohsiung family and a tour group, the CECC said.
In terms of vaccination status, six of them had received either two or three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, one had received one dose of AstraZeneca and one is unvaccinated, it said.
Of the 45 imported cases, 18 tested positive upon arrival, it said, without giving details regarding their vaccination status.
The cluster in Yilan originated with a woman in her 50s who returned on Feb. 10 from the US, the center said.
The woman tested negative upon entry and on her seventh day of quarantine, and opted to spend the rest of the quarantine period at home, during which she tested positive.
Her older sister, who had helped to deliver food to her, subsequently tested positive, as did a coworker.
The two new cases linked to the cluster are family members who the woman’s sister had visited prior to testing positive.
Including the woman who returned from the US, the cluster has five cases, the center said, adding that the cluster involving the Kaohsiung family and a tour group now has 17.
It is highly likely that the cluster is connected to a different cluster infection in northern Taiwan, it said.
A patient in one cluster had visited the home of a patient in the other cluster, but the CECC said it has not yet been able to identify the original source of the clusters.
The center said that it is monitoring three clusters of unknown origin.
As of yesterday, Taiwan had confirmed 20,922 cases of COVID-19 since the emergence of the pandemic in late 2019, including 15,472 locally transmitted cases.
The number of fatalities in the nation resulting from COVID-19 remained at 853.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
STORM’S PATH: Kong-Rey could be the first typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in November since Gilda in 1967. Taitung-Green Island ferry services have been halted Tropical Storm Kong-rey is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon early today and could make landfall in Taitung County between late Thursday and early Friday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, Kong-Rey was 1,030km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the nation’s southernmost point, and was moving west at 7kph. The tropical storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126 kph, CWA data showed. After landing in Taitung, the eye of the storm is forecast to move into the Taiwan Strait through central Taiwan on Friday morning, the agency said. With the storm moving
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
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