Hospitals reported 123,614 visits for influenza-like illnesses last week, the highest in a decade for the first week of the year, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the peak is likely to occur the week before the Lunar New Year holiday next month.
Hospital visits for flu-like illnesses increased from 109,394 a week earlier and 85,912 two weeks earlier, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said.
Forty-one people were hospitalized with serious flu complications and three people died from flu-related conditions last week, Lee said, adding that of those in a serious condition, 30 were unvaccinated and 33 had underlying health conditions.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
All of those who died were unvaccinated and had underlying health conditions, she said, adding that most of them had the influenza A (H3N2) virus.
The most common respiratory viruses identified at contracted laboratories in the past four weeks were adenoviruses, accounting for 43 percent, followed by flu viruses (29.8 percent) and parainfluenza viruses (11.9 percent), she said.
Given the uptrend in hospital visits, the peak week is expected to be Jan. 28 to Feb. 3, the week before the Lunar New Year holiday, with about 150,000 hospital visits expected in the seven days, CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said.
The peak would be the second-highest in a decade, following the 200,000 hospital visits during a cold wave in East Asia in late January 2016, Lo said.
The high number this year is mainly due to a lack of immune stimulation because of measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic in the past three years, he said.
People should get vaccinated and seek medical attention right away if they have emergency symptoms such as shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, or gray or blue, lips or nail beds, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said, adding that vaccination was especially important for elderly people, children, pregnant women and people with underlying conditions, who are at higher risk of developing severe complications.
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 increased by 43 percent to 515 people last week, with 97 percent among them not having received the XBB1.5-adapted vaccine, Lee said.
Genomic data from the past four weeks showed that EG.5 was still the most common strain spreading locally, accounting for 63 percent of cases, followed by the new JN.1 strain at 24 percent, the CDC said, adding that JN.1 was the dominant strain among imported cases.
The 515 people hospitalized last week marked the highest weekly number in five months and the 48 deaths was the highest in four months, Lo said, adding that case numbers are also expected to peak around the Lunar New Year holiday.
While the JN.1 subvariant has not spread as fast locally as predicted, it might still replace EG.5 to become the dominant strain locally before the holiday and cause another wave of infections, he said.
Some foreign studies suggest that the effectiveness of the XBB1.5-adapted vaccine against hospitalization is about 60 to 70 percent, while vaccine-induced antibodies from previous vaccination might have significantly waned after six to nine months, so the CDC encourages people to get the new XBB1.5 vaccine, he said.
From yesterday, indigenous people aged from 55 to 64 years would be included in eligibility for government-funded pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccines, with the expanded eligibility criteria expected to benefit about 77,000 people, the CDC said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS