《TAIPEI TIMES》 Clearer Omicron picture expected in new lunar year

‘HOPEFULLY CALM’: The course of the COVID-19 pandemic is hard to predict, the Minister of Health and Welfare said, urging Taiwanese not to let their guard down

By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

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The world should have a clearer picture of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 after the Lunar New Year holiday, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung （陳時中） said yesterday.

Chen, who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center （CECC）, made the remark at a ceremony in Taipei at which 79 frontline disease prevention establishments received awards for their contributions to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, Taiwan was “more scared than hurt” by the pandemic, “went through terrifying waves” this year and “the calm after the storm” would hopefully come next year, Chen said.

Thanks to border controls, and quarantine and isolation measures, there were 252 continuous days with no new local infections last year, but clusters and a local outbreak this year harmed Taiwanese society, he said.

The center is extremely grateful for the cooperation from all members of society that helped Taiwan bring the local COVID-19 situation under control, Chen said, but added that just as Taiwan is about to catch its breath ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays, the world now faces the Omicron variant.

If the Delta and the Omicron variants continue to dominate worldwide, the world would have a clearer picture of the impact of the Omicron variant in about a month, he said.

As for Taiwan, the picture would be clearer after the holiday starting late next month, he added.

However, as the COVID-19 situation is hard to predict and new variants could emerge at any time, people should strictly follow the CECC’s quarantine and self-health management rules, especially as many Taiwanese return from abroad ahead of the holiday, he said.

Separately yesterday, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang （莊人祥）, the CECC’s spokesman, said that there were no new local infections or deaths yesterday, but 18 new imported cases.

They arrived from Cambodia, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates and the US, he said.

Chuang said that a locally transmitted COVID-19 case reported on Dec. 9 — a former researcher at Academia Sinica — had not infected any of her listed contacts.

As of Friday, they had all tested negative, and the CECC considers the sitution over, he said.

One-hundred-and-ten close contacts had been placed under isolation, 36 potential contacts were ordered to practice self-health management and 337 people had to practice self-health monitoring, Chen said.

CECC data on Friday showed that Taiwan’s first-dose COVID-19 vaccination rate was 79.76 percent and the full vaccination rate was 66.95 percent, while only 0.4 percent of the population had received a booster shot.

The CECC on Dec. 2 launched booster shots for immunocompromised people and those who received their second dose at least five months earlier, he said, adding that until Friday, boosters had been administered to 231 immunocompromised people and 11,249 third-dose recipients.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES