The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said it was easing regulations for home quarantine, as the number of COVID-19 cases rises, but with a large majority reporting no or mild symptoms.
As local community spread might continue to expand, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that home quarantine rules for contacts of local cases have been eased.
The policy of one person per room with an exclusive bathroom has been relaxed to allow people living in the same house to quarantine together, but they must disinfect shared bathrooms after every use, he said.
Photo courtesy of Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital via CNA
The new rules do not apply to inbound travelers, who must follow the policy of one person per room, he added.
The CECC also reported 281 local COVID-19 infections, marking the highest daily case count this year, and 78 imported cases, including 27 people who tested positive upon arrival at the airport on Tuesday.
The 281 local cases were from 17 cities and counties, including 115 in New Taipei City, 45 in Taipei, 37 in Kaohsiung, 26 in Keelung, 17 in Taoyuan and 12 in Hsinchu County, Chen said.
As of 8am yesterday, 163 of the cases had no known sources of infection and were undergoing contact tracing, CECC data showed.
Chen said 40 cases are linked to a cluster in New Taipei City, and most of them are students and their close contacts; 32 cases are linked to a cluster in Keelung; a cluster of 12 new cases were reported among workers and close contacts of a business venue in Kaohsiung; and eight new cases involved workers at a business venue in Taipei.
The two clusters in Kaohsiung and Taipei are business venues with more “complicated” customers, he said.
In addition to the two clusters, Chen said the cluster in New Taipei City involving relatives and schools, the Keelung cluster and a cluster involving a dance studio in Taoyuan, are five chains of local transmission that need to be closely monitored.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said it is now difficult to clearly determine the number of transmission chains with unknown infection sources, as community infection has spread to several cities and counties.
The current focus of contact tracing is to contain the virus’ spread, rather than tracing their possible source of infection, he said, adding that most of the local transmission chains are infected with the Omicron BA.2 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2.
Chen said that contact tracing would become increasingly difficult if case numbers continue to surge.
Better technology methods must be used to simplify the precise contact tracing, rapid and polymerase chain reaction tests must both be conducted and case classification is very important to preserve healthcare capacity, he added.
As of Tuesday, the booster dose vaccination rate had reached 51.01 percent, he said.
As people visiting special recreational venues with escort services are required to receive the booster dose, he said it is likely that the booster dose vaccination status would be required in more types of venues in the near future.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS