Taiwan to further ease COVID-19 controls as cases steadily tick down
ROC Central News Agency
08/01/2023 07:55 PM
Taipei, Aug. 1 (CNA) Starting Aug. 15, individuals who contract mild cases of COVID-19 will be advised to monitor their health for five days, half the current requirement of 10 days, as the pandemic continues to ease in Taiwan, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Tuesday.
When the new regulation takes effect, it is proposed -- but not mandated -- that anyone who obtains a positive rapid test and develops only mild symptoms should stay at home for five days until their condition improves or wear a mask at all times if they go out, the CDC said.
Taiwan phased out mandatory five-day quarantine for COVID patients on March 20, 2023, requiring instead that they conduct so-called self health-management for 10 days as the pandemic eased.
According to the CDC, the daily average of COVID cases during the week July 26-Aug. 1 fell by 25.2 percent to 89 from a week before.
The latest data also shows that an average of 25 people per day died of COVID or COVID-related complications from July 23-29, down 11 percent from a week earlier, according to the CDC.
Of the fatalities recorded during the most recent week, 89 percent of the deceased had chronic illnesses, 59 percent received less than three shots of a vaccine, and 94 percent were 60 or older, it said.
Of the domestic COVID cases recorded over the past four weeks, 87 percent involved the Omicron subvariant XBB, which remains the dominant strain domestically and worldwide, where about 79 percent of all cases are XBB infections, the CDC said.
Meanwhile, there have been 17,031 serious and moderate domestic cases since May 1, the agency said, adding that among them, 5,985 were not vaccinated against the disease, and another 2,476 only received one or two shots of a vaccine.
(By Tseng Yi-ning and Lee Hsin-Yin)
Enditem/AW
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
