COVID-19 is to be reclassified as a Category 4 notifiable communicable disease on Monday next week and the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) is to be disbanded on the same day, the CECC said yesterday.
After the center is disbanded, the Ministry of Health and Welfare is to carry out COVID-19-related response operations, it said.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the center, said that after Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) visited the CECC yesterday afternoon, he has agreed to reclassify COVID-19 and allow the center to be disbanded on Monday next week.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
Monday next week marks the 1,197th day the center has been in operation, it said.
COVID-19 has become a flu-like illness, in terms of decreased rates of incidence, serious complications and deaths, so border control measures and restrictions have gradually been removed since last year, Wang said.
As its key operations have become normalized, the center suggested the disbandment, he said.
The ministry is to set up a COVID-19 supervisory task force to carry out follow-up prevention and response measures, form a specialist advisory panel and continue to work with related ministries in response to new emerging threats, he added.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), who is the CECC spokesman, said the four main tasks of the supervisory task force and specialist advisory panel would include “disease surveillance,” providing government-funded vaccinations, maintaining government-funded antivirals for vulnerable groups with mild symptoms, COVID-19 recovery clinics and hospitalized treatment for moderate-to-severe cases.
Other “response measures” include maintenance and storage of personal protective equipment, and opening designated wards or quarantine centers if hospitalization rates increase, Lo said.
Since the rationing scheme for rapid COVID-19 test kits began on April 28 last year, selling more than 75.25 million kits as of April 13, sales have significantly dropped and there is sufficient supply in the market, so the rationing scheme would end on Sunday, he said.
People can still buy rapid test kits at pharmacies, cosmetics stores, convenience stores or supermarkets from Monday next week, he added.
As emergency use authorizations for COVID-19-related products would be terminated along with the CECC’s disbandment, Lo said only 51 types of COVID-19 examination devices or kits have a deadline on the disbandment date, while vaccines, antivirals and 223 other types of examination devices or kits would not be affected.
CDC Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said that vaccinations would continue to be provided at contracted healthcare facilities and vaccination stations, but starting from Monday next week, healthcare facilities could charge a registration fee.
The masking restrictions at healthcare and long-term care facilities and in ambulances would continue until May 30, but could be extended, Chuang said.
People can access COVID-19-related information on the CDC’s Web site, Facebook page, Line account, the social distancing mobile app and the 1922 hotline, he said.
The final CECC news conference is to be held tomorrow afternoon, Wang said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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