News
Covid cases rise ahead of CNY
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) is reporting 51 new imported coronavirus cases.
Health officials are not releasing any information regarding the vaccination status of the imported cases.
However, data shows that most of the recent confirmed imported cases have been found in people arriving in Taiwan from the United States.
The CECC is warning that the daily number of new imported coronavirus cases will rise in the coming days, as Taiwan enters what is considered to be the peak period for arrivals before the Lunar New Year holiday.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, some 4,200 people are expected to arrive today and some 3,900 arrivals are expected tomorrow.
One new coronavirus-related death is also being reported. Health officials say the death is a Taiwanese man in his 50s who was diagnosed with the coronavirus in December of last year. That brings the number of coronavirus-related fatalities here in Taiwan since the pandemic began to 851.
Meanwhile, the CECC has also confirmed 15 new domestic coronavirus cases.
All but one of those cases is linked to a wider outbreak of the disease originating at Taoyuan International Airport. The number of cases linked to that outbreak now stands at 56.
In other Covid news, the final shipment of AstraZeneca vaccine doses ordered by the government from the manufacturer have arrived in Taiwan.
The government ordered 10 million doses of the vaccine from the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company.
Health Minister Chen Shih-chung says the final batch of doses expires on 31 May.
Chen says that even if the doses are not administered right away, they may prove useful, as AstraZeneca could prove to be the most effective vaccine against some new coronavirus variant that could emerges.
Taiwan has now received a total of 39.4 million coronavirus vaccine doses, including the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech brands.
Figures show that 80.48% of the population has now received one vaccine shot, while 71.55% has received two doses.
However, just over 3.5% of the population has received a third jab, or booster shot.
