Vaccine uptake surges as world journey opens up

• By Lee I-chia and Wu Liang-yi / Employees reporters

COVID-19 vaccinations on Friday soared 66 % above the day by day common, the Central Epidemic Command Heart (CECC) stated yesterday, after it on Thursday introduced a two-phase plan for reopening borders.

The middle stated it might ease its “3+4” quarantine requirement and obligatory COVID-19 testing for arrivals on Sept. 29, earlier than scrapping obligatory quarantines for arrivals and permitting worldwide group excursions from Oct. 13.

After the announcement, many individuals started reserving worldwide flights, and the day by day variety of COVID-19 vaccines administered elevated sharply to 45,713 doses in contrast with final week’s day by day common of about 27,000 doses, the middle stated.

Some nations nonetheless require worldwide vacationers to be vaccinated to enter or be exempt from quarantine.

Facilities for Illness Management (CDC) Deputy Director-Basic Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who’s the CECC’s spokesman, stated 38,157 new native and 214 imported COVID-19 circumstances in addition to 51 deaths had been confirmed yesterday.

The day by day caseload is about 4.1 % decrease than a day earlier, and three.1 % decrease than on Saturday final week, he stated.

Among the many deceased, 48 had power illnesses and 43 had not acquired a booster shot, the CECC stated.

Among the many extreme circumstances was a three-year-old boy, who was recognized with COVID-19 on Aug. 16, didn’t have a power sickness and was not vaccinated, Chuang stated.

The boy on Sept. 16 once more started experiencing COVID-19 signs, together with belly ache and vomiting, and on Monday final week developed rashes on his face and torso, Chuang stated. After he developed pink eye and had low blood strain, he was admitted to an intensive care unit for multisystem inflammatory syndrome in youngsters (MIS-C).

His situation improved after receiving immunoglobulin remedy, and he was transferred out of intensive care on Friday, Chuang stated.

There have been 223 circumstances of extreme COVID-19 in youngsters this yr, together with 142 with MIS-C, 31 with encephalitis, 24 with pneumonia and 11 with croup, and 33 have died, the middle stated.

A number of cities and counties, together with Taipei, New Taipei Metropolis, Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, yesterday started administering Moderna’s bivalent COVID-19 vaccine as booster photographs.

The vaccine targets the unique 2019 pressure of SARS-CoV-2 and the Omicron subvariant BA.1, and has been proven to guard towards the BA.2 and BA.5 subvariants.

The Taipei Division of Well being stated it offered practically 40,000 slots for reserving the vaccine on its on-line reserving platform, and 18,622 slots had been crammed as of yesterday.

Eligible recipients embody folks aged 65 and older, long-term care facility residents and immunocompromised adults, who’ve acquired a second vaccine dose or their final booster shot 84 days in the past, it stated.

They need to convey their Nationwide Well being Insurance coverage card, identification card or residential allow, in addition to their vaccination file card when getting vaccinated, it stated.