New local COVID-19 cases remained at a peak last week, with an average of 245 hospitalized moderate-to-severe cases reported each day, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday.
The average daily number of new hospitalized COVID-19 cases last week was 245, which is about the same as the average of 244 cases per day over the previous week, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said, adding that 76.5 percent of the cases involved people aged 65 or older.
The average daily number of deaths was 35 last week, increasing from the average of 28 deaths per day in the week before, CDC data showed.
Photo:CNA
Eighty-nine percent of the people whose deaths were confirmed last week had underlying health conditions and 57 percent had not received a vaccine booster dose.
A total of 34,580 courses of anti-viral drugs were prescribed to vulnerable people with COVID-19 last week, she said, adding that the weekly number is growing.
The COVID-19 positivity rate at residential long-term care facilities also increased to 2.3 percent last week, she added.
Lee said the Omicron XBB subvariant of SARS-CoV-2 was the dominant strain among local and imported cases last week, accounting for 72 percent of the local sequenced cases.
Separately, the Ministry of Health and Welfare on Monday said COVID-19 was the third-biggest cause of death in Taiwan last year, prompting a public health expert to say that the number of excess deaths reflects the government’s failure in disease prevention, citing the availability of drugs and vaccines.
Citing a report in The Economist report, CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) yesterday said Taiwan ranked ninth from last worldwide in the number of accumulated “excess” deaths from 2020 to last year with 19,140 such deaths — an average of 80 per 100,000 people.
Citing a report published in The Lancet medical journal, he said some countries in the Western Pacific region, including Taiwan, have had much lower death rates and smaller GDP contractions than other countries during the pandemic.
Having excess deaths does not mean disease prevention and response were a failure, Lo said, adding that the CDC would continue to face the post-pandemic review humbly and sincerely, but the global community does not view Taiwan’s fight against COVID-19 as a failure.
Lee said there were 79,562 hospital visits for flu-like illnesses last week, about the same as the previous week (79,793 visits).
The flu situation in Taiwan is at a plateau, he said, adding that 35 severe flu complications and five flu-related deaths were confirmed.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon this morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan between Friday and Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The storm, which as of 8am was still 1,100km southeast of southern Taiwan, is currently expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, the CWA said. Because of its rapid speed — 28kph as of 8am — a sea warning for the storm could be issued tonight, rather than tomorrow, as previously forecast, the CWA said. In terms of its impact, Usagi is to bring scattered or
An orange gas cloud that leaked from a waste management plant yesterday morning in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音) was likely caused by acidic waste, authorities said, adding that it posed no immediate harm. The leak occurred at a plant in the district’s Environmental Science and Technology Park at about 7am, the Taoyuan Fire Department said. Firefighters discovered a cloud of unidentified orange gas leaking from a waste tank when they arrived on the site, it said, adding that they put on Level A chemical protection before entering the building. After finding there was no continuous leak, the department worked with the city’s Department
MESSAGE: The ministry said China and the Philippines are escalating regional tensions, and Taiwan should be included in dialogue mechanisms on an equal footing Taiwan has rejected renewed sovereignty claims over the South China Sea by the Philippines and China by reaffirming its sovereignty and rights under international law over the disputed area. “The Republic of China [ROC] enjoys all rights to island groups and their surrounding waters in the South China Sea in accordance with international law and maritime laws,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said in a statement yesterday. Other countries’ attempts to claim sovereignty over the South China Sea do not change the fact that the ROC holds sovereignty over the region, the ministry said. The MOFA statement came after
RSS