The total number of COVID-19 cases reported in Taiwan topped 9 million after the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 27,676 new infections and 62 deaths from the disease.
The new cases represented a 0.2 percent increase from the same day one week earlier, CECC data showed.
The deceased ranged in age from their 40s to their 90s. All but six had underlying health conditions, while 29 were unvaccinated against COVID-19, the CECC said.
Photo: CNA
Of the 27,676 new cases reported, 395 were contracted overseas, many involving people arriving from China, where COVID-19 cases have surged.
All arrivals from China are required to undergo a saliva-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) COVID-19 test upon arrival and isolate for five days if they test positive.
Test results are usually not available until a day or two after their arrival and it was not clear where the 395 people arrived from, or when they arrived or tested positive because of the lag in the test results.
Of the 1,200 people who arrived from China on Wednesday, 258, or 21.5 percent, returned positive tests, the CECC said.
Of those, 218 entered at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and 40 at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), it said.
Meanwhile, the CECC on Thursday said that mandatory testing would be tightened for residents and workers at long-term care facilities starting next week.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said that residents of long-term care facilities would be required to undergo rapid antigen tests twice a week from Monday until Jan. 31.
However, people with disabilities or dementia, and those aged two to 18 living in care centers, would only have to undergo one test a week, Lo said.
Residents aged two or younger who exhibit suspected COVID-19 symptoms should be taken to a healthcare facility for a PCR test, he said.
Long-term care facility workers would be required to undergo a rapid test once a week and if they display symptoms of COVID-19, he said, adding that many people in such facilities are elderly with chronic illnesses or are in high-risk groups for the virus.
People at care facilities who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 within the previous three months and have subsequently tested negative are not required to get tested, he said.
The weekly testing positivity rate for residents of care facilities jumped from 0.7 percent for Dec. 19 to 25 to 1.2 percent for Dec. 26 to Sunday, CECC data showed.
There were 354 workers across 1,830 institutions — long-term care facilities, nursing homes, mental health/rehabilitation institutions and community welfare centers — who tested positive for COVID-19 in the week from Dec. 26 to Sunday, the data showed.
From Jan. 1 last year to Sunday, 65,392 residents and 19,729 workers in long-term care facilities have contracted COVID-19, the data showed.
The mandatory COVID-19 testing measures for residents in long-term care facilities is evaluated periodically by the CECC, with testing rules eased from twice per week to once a week from Nov. 28 to Saturday last week, while requirements for workers were dropped from Nov. 28.
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