The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 160 local and 244 imported COVID-19 cases, the highest respective case counts this year.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that yesterday’s relatively high number of imported cases was mainly due to a high test positivity rate among a relatively large number of travelers arriving in Taiwan on Friday.
The CECC said that 186 people among the 2,525 who arrived on 28 flights tested positive for COVID-19, resulting in a test positivity rate of 7.37 percent.
Photo courtesy of the CECC
Most of the imported cases reported recently were from Southeast and South Asia, Chen said.
The 160 local cases were residents of 14 counties or cities, including 52 cases in New Taipei City, 37 in Keelung, 22 in Taoyuan and 18 in Taipei, he said.
Nine cases were recorded in Kaohsiung, six in Yilan County, five in Hualien County, three in Changhua County, two each in Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County, and one each in Taichung and Kinmen, Taitung and Pingtung counties, he added.
Chen said that 108 new cases were linked to active clusters, while contact tracing for the 52 remaining new cases of unknown origin was ongoing.
Fourty-two new cases were linked to a Keelung cluster that involves police officers and venues offering escort services, he said.
The cluster now has 157 cases, Chen added.
Seventeen new cases were linked to a cluster involving families and students in New Taipei City’s Sansia District (三峽) that now has 21 cases, 10 new cases were linked to a cluster in an apartment building in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和) that now has 21 cases, and 10 new cases were linked to a cluster involving a dance workshop in Taoyuan that now has 32 cases, he said.
Seven new cases were linked to a cluster involving workers at a power plant construction site in Taoyuan that now has 96 cases, while seven new cases were linked to a cluster involving participants of a wedding banquet in Taichung on Saturday last week that now has 33 cases, CECC data showed.
Genome sequencing of cases of the Taichung wedding cluster showed that they had the BA.2.3 subvariant of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, Chen said, adding that it was the first time that the subvariant was detected in Taiwan, making it the nation’s 25th Omicron subvariant.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy chief of the CECC’s medical response division, said genome sequencing indicated that the Taoyuan dance workshop cluster and the construction site cluster involve similar genomes.
However, as the CECC could not establish a link between the clusters, there might be undetected cases in the area, Lo said.
Asked whether the CECC would raise the COVID-19 alert level if the daily case count remains above 100 during the four-day Tomb Sweeping Day weekend, Chen said that the center would only raise the alert level or tighten restrictions if “unexpected special situations” occur.
The main policy direction is toward “reopening,” he said.
The CECC’s main focus is preserving the nation’s healthcare capacity, monitoring the COVID-19 situation, and treating cases with medium or severe symptoms, he said.
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