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12 imported breakthrough COVID-19 infections reported since July

ROC Central News Agency

08/14/2021 10:01 PM

Taipei, Aug. 14 (CNA) Taiwan has recorded 145 imported COVID-19 cases since early July, 12 of which involved people who had been fully vaccinated against the disease for at least two weeks, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).

The CECC has registered 145 imported COVID-19 cases since new measures targeting all arrivals were introduced on July 2, CECC official Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) said at a regular press briefing.

The measures include giving more COVID-19 tests to each individual and conducting genome sequencing to better understand imported cases.

According to Lo, 12 of the imported cases are breakthrough infections, meaning people who come down with the disease at least 14 days after receiving one or two of the vaccine shots they need to be fully vaccinated against the virus.

Meanwhile, another 28 cases involved people who had received one out of two required shots or had been fully vaccinated with one or two jabs for less than two weeks, he added.

In total, 40 people who were infected overseas had received at least one vaccine dose, which translates into about 28 percent of all imported cases reported since July, according to CECC data.

Among them, 19 people received Pfizer-BioNTech jabs, seven were administered AstraZeneca shots, six took Moderna vaccine doses and four chose Johnson & Johnson and Sinovac vaccines, respectively, Lo said.

A majority of those people were infected by the highly contagious Delta variant, which was first discovered in India but has since become dominant in much of the world, Lo said.

The CECC has also identified the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Theta, Epsilon and Colombian variants among the imported cases, according to Lo.

However, whether the newly emerged variants affect the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines has yet to be determined and requires more research, Lo said.

Meanwhile, breakthrough infections have also been reported among domestically-transmitted cases.

CECC spokesperson Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said last week that six people who had been fully vaccinated with two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine for 14 days contracted the disease.

All of them developed mild symptoms, he added.

(By Chang Ming-hsuan and Chiang Yi-ching and Teng Pei-ju)

Enditem/AW