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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Updated class suspension rules come into force
Students leave an elementary school in Taipei’s Beitou District yesterday. Photo: CNA
By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
New COVID-19 in-person class suspension regulations were implemented by the Central Epidemic Command Center （CECC） yesterday, in which classmates of a confirmed case would be allowed to continue in-person classes if they test negative with a rapid test kit provided by the school two days after an initial case is confirmed.
If a student tests positive at school, their teachers and classmates can continue in-person classes if they do not have symptoms, and they would receive a rapid test kit from the school for testing at home, said Centers for Disease Control （CDC） Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang （莊人祥）, who is the CECC spokesman.
If a student begins to feel ill at school, the school should inform the parents to take their child home and seek medical attention, and the school would provide rapid test kits for their classmates to test at home, Chuang said.
Meanwhile, the Omicron BA.5 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2 has become the dominant strain of the COVID-19 virus in the nation, accounting for more than half of new cases, while the number of new COVID-19 infections have been increasing for four consecutive weeks, the CECC said.
CDC Director-General Chou Jih-haw （周志浩）, head of the CECC’s disease surveillance division, said that 25,346 new domestic cases, 237 imported cases and 28 deaths were confirmed yesterday.
He said the number of local infections is about 6 percent higher than on Monday last week and the number of COVID-19 cases is still climbing, so the CECC encourages people to continue taking preventive measures.
CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo （羅一鈞）, deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said the 28 deaths were all people aged 60 or older, including 24 people who had chronic diseases and 19 people who did not get a third vaccine shot.
Lo said genome sequencing conducted on virus samples from 174 local cases last week found that 88 were infected with the Omicron BA.5 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2, 50.6 percent of the sequenced cases, while the other 86 were infected with the Omicron BA.2 subvariant.
The results showed that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has gradually replaced the Omicron BA.2 subvariant to become the dominant strain circulating, but its spread was not as fast as previously expected, implying that the “community firewall” established from previous Omicron BA.2 infections is still effective.
The 88 local cases of Omicron BA.5 were 30 males and 58 females, with 45 cases in northern Taiwan, 34 cases in central Taiwan, eight cases in southern Taiwan and one case in eastern Taiwan, Lo said, adding that the number of cases in eastern and southern Taiwan is expected to increase.
He also reported one death from the Omicron BA.5 subvariant, a woman in her 60s who was unvaccinated, had a record of diabetes, had suffered a stroke and was bedridden.
The woman tested positive with a rapid test and was hospitalized for pneumonia on Aug. 30, but she died of respiratory failure on Sept. 1, he said.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang （王必勝）, who heads the CECC, said the number of domestic cases has been increasing for four consecutive weeks, although the 8.2 percent increase from last week is slightly lower than the week before, but it could be due to fewer people seeking medical attention during the long weekend.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
