The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported two local and six imported cases of COVID-19, but no deaths.
The two local cases reside in Taipei, a woman in her 70s and another one in her 20s, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is also the CECC spokesman, told a news briefing in Taipei.
The woman in her 70s was in a hospital on Wednesday for surgery and tested positive yesterday. A person who had contact with her has been asked to quarantine at home, Chuang said.
The woman in her 20s was tested for COVID-19 because she needed to accompany her mother to hospital.
Although her boyfriend and two relatives contracted the disease in May, the woman was not tested for COVID-19 at the time, even though she reported having cold symptoms, Chuang said.
She tested negative for the virus on Friday last week, but another test on Wednesday was positive, with a cycle threshold (CT) value of 33, he said.
The source of her infection is still under investigation, and eight people who had contact with her are required to quarantine at home, he said.
The six imported cases are four Taiwanese returning from the US, Indonesia and Malaysia; a Lithuanian arriving from Lithuania; and an Indonesian arriving from Indonesia, CECC data showed.
Four of them had received Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines, Chuang said.
Chuang also shared the genome sequencing results of 11 cases that are part of the 41 imported cases reported between Friday last week and Thursday.
All had the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, with eight showing no symptoms, CECC data showed.
Taiwan has recorded a total of 149 infections by the Delta variant, including 43 local cases, Chuang said.
As of Thursday, 11,536,036 people — or about 49 percent of the nation’s population — have received a first shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, while about 1.4 million have received two doses, CECC data showed.
Taiwan yesterday afternoon took delivery of 640,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, while a shipment of 1.08 million doses of the Moderna vaccine was expected to arrive last night. Both deliveries were part of the nation’s vaccine purchase program.
The latest arrivals would bring Taiwan’s total supply of COVID-19 vaccines to 17.3 million, the CECC said.
In related news, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said that Taiwan would donate 10,000 pulse oximeters and 1,008 oxygen concentrators to Japan in return for its donations of COVID-19 vaccines to Taiwan since early June.
Japan has shipped about 3.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Taiwan. Its government pledged another donation of 500,000 vaccine doses to Taiwan earlier this week.
While the ministry did not specify when the equipment would be delivered, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said that “the first shipment of the pulse oximeters will soon depart” for Japan.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Thursday evening thanked Taiwan for the donation , writing on Twitter that the devices would be put to good use.
Whenever there are threats posed by natural disasters and pandemics, Japan and Taiwan have always help each other on humanitarian grounds and have fostered a strong friendship, he added.
Additional reporting by CNA
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