Last year cancer was the leading cause of death in Taipei for the 51st consecutive year, while COVID-19 became the third most common cause of death in the city, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday.
The department said 21,047 Taipei residents died last year, which is an increase of 2,395 people (12.8 percent) compared with the year before, while the mortality rate was 841 deaths per 100,000 people, which is 113.4 deaths (15.6 percent) more than the year before.
The growth rates of deaths and mortality were the highest on record.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
They were mainly affected by the COVID-19 outbreak and aging population, it said.
Among the 10 leading causes of death in Taipei, cancer was followed by heart disease, COVID-19 infection, pneumonia, cerebrovascular disease, chronic lower respiratory disease, diabetes, hypertensive disease, kidney disease and vascular or unspecified dementia.
Deaths from the 10 leading causes accounted for 76.7 percent of all deaths in the city last year, and eight among the leading causes were chronic diseases, accounting for 62.4 percent of all the deaths in the city, it said.
The number of deaths due to cancer, pneumonia and cerebrovascular disease have slightly decreased last year, while deaths due to the other seven causes increased, and among them, COVID-19-related deaths increased by 1,287 people, which is 3.8 times of that from the year before, the department’s data show.
About 82.9 percent of the total deaths were of elderly people aged 65 or older, and of the COVID-19 related deaths, 90.2 percent were aged 65 or older.
The Taipei Department of Health’s Statistics Office Director Fan Ju-hsin (范汝欣) said that COVID-19 leaped from the 11th leading cause of death to the third leading cause of death last year, and that the city’s COVID-19 mortality rate was 65.1 deaths per 100,000 people, slightly higher than the nation’s COVID-19 mortality of 62.9 deaths per 100,000 people.
The high COVID-19 mortality rate could be explained by Taipei’s higher number of elderly residents — the second highest percentage of elderly in its population in the nation, she said, adding that the data also did not distinguish between the influence levels of different factors, such as those who died of COVID-19 and might also have had cancer, but were counted among the COVID-19-related deaths.
In other news, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday denied Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) claim on Sunday about the government having received more donated COVID-19 vaccines than it purchased.
The CDC said Taiwan began purchasing COVID-19 vaccines in September 2020, and received vaccines donated by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co-affiliated Yonglin Foundation, the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, as well as the governments of the US, Japan, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia.
As of the end of last month, Taiwan had received a total of 92.675 million doses of vaccines — 68.41 million doses purchased by the government and 24.265 million doses donated by the countries and agencies — it said, adding that the government had purchased 73.8 percent of the vaccine doses.
Additional reporting by CNA
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
Taipei is participating in Osaka’s Festival of Lights this year, with a 3m-tall bubble tea light installation symbolizing Taiwan’s bubble tea culture. The installation is designed as a bubble tea cup and features illustrations of Taipei’s iconic landmarks, such as Taipei 101, the Red House and North Gate, as well as soup dumplings and the matchmaking deity the Old Man Under the Moon (月下老人), affectionately known as Yue Lao (月老). Taipei and Osaka have collaborated closely on tourism and culture since Taipei first participated in the festival in 2018, the Taipei City Department of Information and Tourism said. In February, Osaka represented
POOR IMPLEMENTATION: Teachers welcomed the suspension, saying that the scheme disrupted school schedules, quality of learning and the milk market A policy to offer free milk to all school-age children nationwide is to be suspended next year due to multiple problems arising from implementation of the policy, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday. The policy was designed to increase the calcium intake of school-age children in Taiwan by drinking milk, as more than 80 percent drink less than 240ml per day. The recommended amount is 480ml. It was also implemented to help Taiwanese dairy farmers counter competition from fresh milk produced in New Zealand, which is to be imported to Taiwan tariff-free next year when the Agreement Between New Zealand and
IDENTITY SHIFT: Asked to choose to identify as either Taiwanese or Chinese, 83.3 percent of respondents chose Taiwanese, while 8.4 percent chose Chinese An overwhelming majority of Taiwanese, 71.5 percent, think that Taiwan should compete in international competitions under the name “Taiwan,” a Taiwan Brain Trust survey published yesterday showed. Referring to Taiwan’s victory last month at the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s Premier12, the survey results showed that 89.1 percent of respondents said that Taiwan’s exceptional performance in sporting competitions furthers national unity. Only 18.8 percent of respondents supported Taiwanese teams’ continued use of the name “Chinese Taipei” in international sporting competitions, the survey showed. Among Taiwan’s leading political parties, the name “Team Taiwan” was supported by 91.1 percent of self-identified Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) supporters,
RSS