A cluster of COVID-19 infections at the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Taoyuan General Hospital might end in one to two weeks if people continue implementing disease prevention measures, National Taiwan University College of Public Health professor Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said yesterday.
A mutated SARS-CoV-2 strain has caused a second wave of the pandemic, not only in the US and the UK, but also in Africa and Asia, Chen said, adding that an increase in the number of imported cases in Taiwan led to the cluster infection, which was inevitable.
“The global COVID-19 situation is expected to continue for a while, but it might significantly slow down after March,” Chen said. “Therefore, I urge people to continue implementing non-pharmaceutical public health interventions [NPIs], meaning disease prevention actions apart from getting vaccinated and taking medicine.”
Photo: CNA
Implementing NPIs is still the most important measure to prevent infections, he said.
“If Taiwan can thoroughly implement NPIs, I believe the cluster infection at the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Taoyuan General Hospital can come to an end in one to two weeks,” he said.
The cluster has increased vigilance in the past couple of weeks, which helps to reduce the risk of a community outbreak, he said.
Based on the number of weekly confirmed cases, the US still tops the list of high-risk countries, followed by Brazil and the UK, Chen said, adding that Taiwan has dropped out of the top 30 low-risk countries to 31st because of the cluster.
“Taiwan still has a very low risk of infection, so I hope everyone can cherish the COVID-19 prevention performance we have had so far, and not be affected by the cluster and lose confidence,” he said.
He cited a study in the Brazilian city of Manaus, which said that an estimated 66 percent of residents have been infected with COVID-19.
The city was thought to have reached the threshold for herd immunity, but cases are still being reported and Brazilian authorities still need to implement NPIs, he said.
The example shows that infection-derived natural herd immunity might be difficult to achieve and comes at a high price, including many deaths, he said.
However, the effectiveness of vaccines still awaits scientific evidence, so social distancing and reducing the virus’ spread are still the most effective methods to fight COVID-19, he said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods