Starting from April 8, people aged 65 and older, indigenous people aged 55 to 64, children younger than six months old and people who are immunocompromised would be eligible for a booster shot of a vaccine against the JN.1 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday.
The booster shot should only be taken 180 days after their previous shot, CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑惠) said.
While a vaccine of the JN.1 variant was administered as of Oct. 1 last year, its protection wanes over time, she said.
Photo courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control
The CDC cited the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines that people in the targeted groups receive another booster shot.
The immunocompromised group includes people undergoing or who have undergone immunosuppressive therapy, chemotherapy or radiation therapy within the past year or who are taking immunosuppressive medication; people who have had organ transplant or stem-cell transplant surgery; people who have medium or severe congenital immunodeficiency; people who are on dialysis; those who have HIV; and other cases as deemed necessary by a doctor, Tseng said.
Six new severe cases of COVID-19 and one death were reported last week, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said.
From September last year to yesterday, 522 cases of severe local cases of COVID-19 were reported, 112 of which resulted in death, Lee said.
Most cases involved people aged 65 and older or those with chronic diseases, she said.
All new strains reported over the past four weeks were of the SARS-CoV-2 XEC variant, including the JN.1, LP.8.1 and others, she said.
CDC data showed that 2.04 million people have been vaccinated against JN.1, 1.91 million of which used Moderna vaccines and 127,000 used Novavax vaccines.
The nation has a sufficient supply of JN.1 vaccines, with Moderna and Novavax options available for people aged 12 and older, Lee said, adding that children aged six months to 11 years old would only be vaccinated with Moderna vaccines.
Hospitals reported 108,000 emergency room visits for influenza-like illnesses last week, indicating a downward trend, the CDC said.
Emergency rooms admitted 211,000 people with diarrhea-like illnesses, down 18.4 percent from the previous week, but still the highest for the same period over the past five years, it said.
The number of diarrhea clusters in the past four weeks, 242, is also the highest for the same period, it said.
Most outbreaks occur at hotels and eateries, with the majority, 98.7 percent, affected by norovirus, it said, urging people to take necessary precautions.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese
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