《TAIPEI TIMES》 CECC adds 216 new local cases as ‘peak yet to come’

ANNUAL HIGH: Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung said several chains of transmission remain active, indicating an expanding local COVID-19 situation

By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

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Taiwan’s latest COVID-19 outbreak might not yet have reached its peak, the Central Epidemic Command Center （CECC） said yesterday, as it reported 216 new domestic cases — the highest daily tally this year — as well as 65 imported cases.

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung （陳時中）, who heads the center, said that the 216 local cases were reported across 12 cities and counties.

New Taipei City reported 91 cases, followed by 33 cases in Keelung, 28 in Taipei, 13 in Hsinchu County, 11 in Taoyuan, 10 each in Kaohsiung and Hualien County, eight in Hsinchu City, five in Taichung, three each in Changhua and Yilan counties, and one case in Tainan, he added.

Centers for Disease Control （CDC） Deputy Director-General Philip Lo （羅一鈞）, deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said that contact tracing was as of yesterday morning still being conducted for 80 cases, so their connection with previous cases remained unknown.

Of the cases associated with previous clusters, 34 cases are linked to a large cluster in Keelung, 31 are linked to a cluster involving schools and students’ relatives in New Taipei City, 16 are linked to a cluster involving a wedding banquet in Taichung and 12 are linked to a cluster involving an apartment building in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District （中和）.

New clusters include seven cases at a school in Taipei, six in a family in New Taipei City, six at a bank in Taoyuan, and seven involving two families and a close contact, Lo said.

New cases in the apartment building cluster were detected by expanded community testing, so the cluster needs to be closely monitored, Chen said.

In the wedding banquet cluster, 13 of the new cases tested positive during isolation, so the cluster seems to be almost under control, he said.

However, the local COVID-19 situation might not yet have reached its peak, as several local chains of transmission remain active, Chen added.

Daily case tallies seem to show an expanding situation, he said.

One of the new cases is a woman in her 60s with diabetes and moderate COVID-19 symptoms, although she had received a booster shot, Chen said.

She did not get pneumonia and was not in an intensive care unit, but her blood oxygen level fell to between 90 and 92 percent, he said, adding that the hospital was treating her with the medication remdesivir and her vital signs were stable.

Asked whether people with mild or no symptoms might isolate at home, Chen said that there is so far adequate capacity at centralized quarantine facilities and enhanced disease prevention hotels.

The option might be considered if the daily case tally exceeds 1,500 people, he said.

The nation’s first, second and booster dose vaccination rates had as of Monday reached 83.49 percent, 78.47 percent and 50.93 percent respectively, he said.

Asked about the number of breakthrough infections in people with booster shots, CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang （莊人祥）, who is the CECC’s spokesman, said that as of March 21, there were 169 cases, or 1.6 cases per 100,000 people.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES