Large-scale antibody testing for COVID-19 can help the government understand the immunity in previously infected individuals and vaccinated individuals, as well as creating a safer working environment, National Taiwan University (NTU) College of Public Health professor Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said yesterday.
In his weekly online broadcast on COVID-19 issues, Chen yesterday invited Wang Sen-te (王森德), an attending physician at Taipei Medical University Hospital’s (TMUH) Family Medicine Department, to discuss the importance of large-scale antibody testing.
Wang is also the host of a large-scale COVID-19 antibody testing project in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), implemented by the Taipei City Government, TMUH and NTU’s College of Public Health, and announced by the city government earlier this month.
Of average full vaccination coverage in the populated continents, Europe has the highest rate at 59.53 percent, followed by North America with 55.18 percent, South America with 47.92 percent, Asia with 37.06 percent, Oceania with 30.56 percent and Africa with 4.75 percent, Chen said.
As global vaccination coverage increases, the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies differs by nation, so antibody testing is needed to understand whether the immunity levels induced through natural infection and vaccination can provide a degree of protection against future infections, he said.
Wanhua District was one of the hotspots when the local outbreak of COVID-19 occurred in May, Wang said.
The district with a population of about 180,000 had more than 2,000 confirmed cases, and the antibody testing project is using random sampling to find 5,000 adult participants, he said.
Polymerase chain reaction or antigen tests are mainly used for diagnosing whether the recipient is currently infected with the virus, but antibody tests show previous infections and the prevalence of antibodies against COVID-19, he added.
The program would help the government better understand the prevalence of the disease and possible transmission routes within the district, as well as the level of immunity in previously infected and vaccinated individuals, so that it can improve its policies for isolating sources of infection or easing disease prevention measures, Wang said.
Although vaccination can reduce the risk of severe COVID-19 symptoms and death, vaccination coverage in Taiwan is still not high enough, as herd immunity has still not been achieved in some nations with higher vaccination coverage, Chen said.
While vaccination and non-pharmaceutical interventions are being practiced quite well in Taiwan, expanded testing should also be implemented to understand the public’s immunity to COVID-19, and also to create a safer working environment as the government looks to boost the domestic economy, he said.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS