The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said that 17.2 percent of people — or 225 out of 1,305 — who arrived on flights from China on Friday tested positive for COVID-19.
The number of imported cases has been high over the past few days, said Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesperson.
As China reopened its borders and lifted travel restrictions yesterday, the CECC is continuing to monitor whether the country’s reopening might affect Taiwan, Chuang said.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT
The “small three links” — direct flights and ferry services linking Taiwan’s outlying islands to China — were partially resumed on Saturday for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties.
Seven of the 37 ferry passengers who arrived in Kinmen from Xiamen, China, were tested for COVID-19 on the first day, the CECC said.
Travelers from Kinmen to Xiamen are required to provide a negative polymerase chain reaction test result within 48 hours before the trip.
Kinmen County Commissioner Chen Fu-hai (陳福海) yesterday said that the same requirement should be applied to travelers from Xiamen to Kinmen.
Separately, the CECC yesterday reported 23,080 new local COVID-19 cases, 331 imported cases and 36 deaths.
Chuang said the local caseload was 8.7 percent lower than the 25,270 cases reported on Sunday last week.
A total of 180,145 local cases were reported from Jan. 1 to Saturday, up 4.4 percent from the previous week’s 172,492, he said.
However, the rate of increase has slowed considerably from the 42.8 percent rise reported between the third and fourth weeks of last month, he added.
Chuang said the daily caseloads have been fluctuating in the third wave of infections driven by the Omicron subvariant of SARS-CoV-2, and the rapid rise in cases last month might have been due to people relaxing their personal preventive measures coupled with more people traveling abroad.
Acquired immunity from infection might have slowed the spread this month, Chuang added.
Of the 36 deaths reported yesterday, the youngest was a man in his 30s who had chronic nervous system disease and was living in a care facility. He had had received five doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
He tested positive on Dec. 30 and on Wednesday died of respiratory failure at a hospital after being diagnosed with pneumonia.
Additional reporting by CNA
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