No new cases of COVID-19 were reported yesterday, marking the 27th consecutive day without new domestic cases in Taiwan, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
CECC specialist advisory panel convener Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) said that 66,460 suspected cases have been reported from Jan. 15 to Thursday, and 440 have tested positive for the disease.
Among the infected patients, 308 (70 percent) were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms, 96 (21.8 percent) had pneumonia and 36 (8.2 percent) had serious pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome, he said.
Photo provided by the Central Epidemic Command Center via CNA
A total of 361 patients (82 percent) have left isolation after testing negative three consecutive times, 352 (80 percent) have been discharged from hospitals, 82 (18.6 percent) remain hospitalized and six (1.4 percent) have died, he said.
Chang said that among 24 patients who had or have depended on ventilators, as of yesterday only three remain on ventilators, and one still requires extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
No COVID-19 cases have been detected among medical practitioners and long-term care facility workers, he said, adding that expanded criteria for testing them were implemented on March 30.
“It is likely that the total number of cases [in Taiwan] would remain about the same, with maybe a few sporadic imported cases still being reported,” Chang said.
“With COVID-19’s 14-day incubation period, if no new case has been detected in local communities for two incubation periods — 28 days — from a public health perspective, we could view our communities as safe,” he said.
Taiwan has an infection rate of about 18.6 confirmed cases per 1 million people and a death rate of about 0.3 deaths per 1 million, which are lower than Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member countries, Chang said.
The infection rates in several European countries and the US are higher than 3,000 cases per 1 million, he added.
In other news, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that as spectators at CPBL baseball games on Friday were well-behaved in practicing personal disease prevention measures in the first two games opened to the public, the CECC is considering raising the maximum number of spectators per game from 1,000 to 2,000.
Additionally, Department of Medical Affairs Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said that from yesterday, regulations for visitors to intensive care units, hospices and palliative care units in hospitals have been relaxed, allowing for a maximum of two visitors per hospital bed in a given visiting period.
Each hospital would determine the visiting hours, and hospitals are required to control the flow of visitors and implement disinfection measures, he said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS