Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command (CECC) reported 25,270 new COVID-19 infections and 20 deaths from the disease Sunday, one of which was an imported case involving a Taiwanese man who was a long-time resident of New Zealand.
The new cases represented a 40-percent increase from the same day a week earlier, CECC data showed. New cases during the seven-day period from Dec. 26, 2022 to Jan. 1, 2023 were also up 42.8 percent from the previous week.
Case numbers are compared on a week-on-week basis because of variances in reported numbers depending on the day of the week.
The deceased reported on Sunday ranged in age from their 40s to their 90s.
Nine of the deceased were over the age of 80, and 18 of them had underlying health conditions. In addition, eight of them had not received any COVID-19 vaccines and nine were only partially vaccinated.
Imported cases
CECC spokesperson Chuang Jen-hsiang (???) said of the 20 deceased, one case was imported.
Chuang said the individual was a man in his 50s with a history of underlying health conditions, including diabetes and a pancreas transplant.
He had resided in New Zealand since leaving Taiwan in 2016, but returned to Taiwan on Dec. 19, 2022, and was taken to an emergency room the same day after feeling unwell.
Following various treatments, including receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and being medicated with Remdesivir and steroids, the man died on Dec. 28.
With the exception of Dec. 31, when it recorded 81 imported cases, Taiwan has reported over 100 imported cases a day since Dec. 28.
Regional breakdown
Regionally, New Taipei recorded the highest number of new cases, with 5,334, followed by Taichung with 3,419 and Taipei with 2,860.
Taoyuan reported 2,728 new cases, Kaohsiung 2,398, Tainan 2,053, Changhua 1,145, Hsinchu County 896, Hsinchu City 765, Miaoli 549 and Yunlin 462.
Pingtung had 475 cases, Nantou 373, Keelung 418, Chiayi County 330, Yilan 328, Chiayi City 205, Hualien 217, Kinmen 126, Taitung 116 and Penghu 69, the CECC said.
To date, Taiwan has recorded 8,872,746 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began in early 2020.
With the 20 deaths reported on Sunday, the number of confirmed COVID-19 fatalities in the country rose to 15,273.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel