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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 CECC reports 54 local infections, eight deaths
Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Co workers, outsourcing contractors and sales agents wait in line for COVID-19 vaccination under the Huazhong Bridge in Taipei yesterday. Photo: CNA
By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
The Central Epidemic Command Center （CECC） yesterday reported 54 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, including one case of the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 in Pingtung County.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung （陳時中）, who heads the center, said that 17 of the 54 local cases tested positive during home isolation or upon ending isolation.
Of the 54, 19 were males and 35 were females, ranging in age from younger than five to older than 80, who began experiencing symptoms between June 16 and Monday.
New Taipei City reported 22 cases, followed by Taipei with 20, Taoyuan and Hsinchu County with four each, Changhua County with two, and Keelung and Pingtung County with one each.
The infection sources of 31 cases have been identified, 18 cases are under investigation and five remain unclear, CECC data showed.
As of yesterday morning, 75.1 percent of the 13,435 cases reported from May 11 to Sunday had been released from isolation, Chen said.
The number of confirmed cases reported yesterday is the lowest since a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert was issued on May 19.
Providing an update on a cluster of Delta variant infections — including two imported cases and 12 locally transmitted cases — in Pingtung County’s Fangshan Township （枋山）, Chen said that one new case, No. 14,734, has been added to the list.
The case — a man in his 70s living in neighboring Fangliao Township （枋寮） — was first reported by the CECC on Monday, and his genome sequencing result was confirmed yesterday.
The man’s wife has also tested positive for COVID-19, but her genome sequencing result case has not yet come out, Chen said, adding that it is highly likely that their case is linked to the Delta variant cluster in Fangshan, so the Pingtung County Government is making an all-out effort to conduct contact tracing.
The close contacts of case No. 14,734 and his wife have been expanded to 399 people, who have all been placed in isolation at centralized quarantine facilities and undergone one test for COVID-19, with a second and a third test to be conducted on their seventh and 14th day of isolation.
As for expanded testing in local communities, as of Monday, 2,916 people had received polymerase chain reaction tests at local community screening stations in Pingtung County, with 1,416 people testing negative and 781 people still awaiting their test results, Chen said.
As a confirmed case who was diagnosed with the Delta variant cluster in Fangshan had visited Tainan recently, and a household cluster of eight infections was reported in Tainan’s Annan District （安南）, concern has risen on whether the Delta variant has spread beyond Pingtung County.
Chen said genome sequencing on the Tainan cluster showed that they contracted the Alpha variant of the coronavirus, so the two clusters are independent of each other.
Centers for Disease Control （CDC） Deputy Director-General Philip Lo （羅一鈞）, deputy chief of the CECC’s medical response division, said that as an extra precaution, those who have been diagnosed with the Delta variant are staying in designated COVID-19 hospital rooms or negative pressure wards.
Among them, six are undergoing monoclonal antibody treatment and three are taking remdesivir, he said.
One case was first given monoclonal antibodies and later remdesivir as the person’s condition worsened, he said.
The CECC also reported eight COVID-19 deaths — five men and three women aged 60 to 90 who had underlying health conditions. They died between Friday and Monday.
A total of 1,964,592 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Taiwan, which translates into a coverage rate of 8.2 percent, CECC data showed.
CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang （莊人祥）, who is the CECC spokesman, said that 240 reports of death after COVID-19 vaccination have been received, with post-mortem examinations being conducted on 44 cases.
Of the 44, two cases have yet to be clarified, while the cause of death in 33 cases were considered to be associated with their underlying health conditions, and nine died of other reasons, including choking on food, cervical spine fracture, intracranial hemorrhage, suspected pneumonia and urinary tract infection, he said.
The 240 death cases ranged in age from 41 to 101, including 186 who were aged 75 or older, he added.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
