The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday held its last news conference ahead of its dissolution on Monday next week, when COVID-19 would be downgraded from a category 5 to a category 4 notifiable communicable disease.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the center, told the news conference that 99 people had developed severe complications of COVID-19 over the previous seven days — up from 93 in the previous seven-day period — and 13 people had died from the disease.
Since March 20, the number of severe COVID-19 infections has remained virtually stable at its lowest point this year, Wang said.
Photo: CNA
After Monday next week, all updates on COVID-19, along with other diseases, would be made during the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) weekly news briefing on Tuesdays, he said.
The CDC would continue to recommend that people receive at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot this year to boost their immunity, Wang said.
The center has not made a decision on whether COVID-19 vaccines would be needed next year, he said.
Photo: CNA
The CECC was formed by the CDC on Jan. 20, 2020, following the spread of the then-unknown disease first reported by authorities in Wuhan, China, on Dec. 31, 2019.
The nation reported its first COVID-19 case on Jan. 21, 2020, a Taiwanese national returning from Wuhan, and had recorded more than 10.15 million cases as of March 10, before the definition of COVID-19 cases to be reported was limited to those with serious complications on March 20, health ministry data showed.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS