Credit Our World In Data - (as of yesterday)
#16,691
Although it pales in comparison to what Hong Kong and parts of Mainland China are reporting, Taiwan overnight reported their highest 24-hour case count of the pandemic. Arguably one of the most successful nations in controlling the pandemic, Taiwan has - until just over two weeks ago - only seen 1 serious wave.
But - as we've already seen in Hong Kong and Shanghai - control methods that worked to control older variants (Alpha, Delta, etc.) are proving no match against the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
The previous 1-day record was 723 cases in May of last year. Today's report cites 933 cases. The (translated) daily report from Taiwan's CDC follows:
933 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, 744 local and 189 imported
Release date: 2022-04-13
The Central Epidemic Command Center announced today (13) that there were 933 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in China, including 744 local cases and 189 imported cases (95 were positive for flight landing tests); there were no new confirmed cases die.
The command center said that the 744 new local cases today are 358 males, 385 females, and 1 case under investigation. The age ranged from under 5 years old to over 90 years old. The onset date is between April 4, 2022. From April 12 to April 12, 368 cases were asymptomatic infections. The cases are distributed in New Taipei City (264 cases), Taipei City (141 cases), Taoyuan City (65 cases), Keelung City (56 cases), Kaohsiung City (50 cases), Hualien County (48 cases), Hsinchu County and Taichung City (23 cases each), Yilan County and Pingtung County (14 cases each), Tainan City (12 cases), Hsinchu City (11 cases), Changhua County (7 cases), Taitung County (4 cases), Miaoli County, Chiayi City and Chiayi County (3 cases each), Yunlin County (2 cases), and Nantou County (1 case). The related epidemic investigation is ongoing.
The command center explained that today's new cases of immigration from abroad are 81 males, 101 females, and 7 cases under investigation, ranging in age from under 5 years old to over 70 years old, from Vietnam (29 cases), Indonesia (22 cases), Japan (4 cases), Canada, the United States and the Philippines (3 cases each), South Korea and France (2 cases each), Qatar, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Spain and Belgium (1 case each), and another 115 cases under investigation . The entry dates are from March 11 to April 12 this year.
The command center pointed out that there were 28,816 local cases announced on April 12 this year. After the epidemic investigation, the case entered Thailand on April 1 this year, and the case was changed to an imported case.
According to the statistics of the command center, as of now, a total of 7,495,983 cases of novel coronavirus pneumonia have been reported in China (including 7,466,086 excluded), of which 29,593 were confirmed, including 9,266 imported cases, 20,273 local cases, 36 Dunmu Fleet cases, 3 aircraft infections, 1 Unknown cases and 14 cases under investigation; 6 new empty cases (originally 5 local cases and 1 imported case, negative or repeated cases after the epidemic investigation, changed to empty case), a total of 188 cases were removed as Empty number. Since 2020, a total of 854 COVID-19 deaths have been reported, of which 840 are local. The counties and cities where the cases reside are 413 in New Taipei City, 322 in Taipei City, 30 in Keelung City, 28 in Taoyuan City, 15 in Changhua County, and 15 in Hsinchu County. 13 cases, 5 cases in Taichung City, 3 cases in Miaoli County, 2 cases each in Yilan County and Hualien County, and 1 case each in Hsinchu City, Nantou County, Yunlin County, Tainan City, Kaohsiung City, Pingtung County and Taitung County; 14 cases were imported from abroad.
The command center once again calls on the public to implement personal protective measures such as hand hygiene, cough etiquette and wearing masks, reduce unnecessary movement, activities or gatherings, avoid entering and leaving crowded places, or areas with high risk of infection transmission, and take the initiative to be proactive Cooperate with various epidemic prevention measures and jointly strictly guard the community defense line.
Taiwan has managed to keep COVID under control without resorting to the draconian, and economically devastating, lockdowns which have highlighted Mainland China's approach.
Schools have largely remained open over the past 2 years, although earlier this week 200 schools announced closures due to rising COVID cases. In response, their Ministry of Education announced new (and tighter) standards for school closures this week.
As we've seen previously in Hong Kong, Taiwan's success in controlling COVID has led to a less than desirable uptake of the vaccine, particularly by those over the age of 75 (see Nature News ‘COVID zero’ regions struggle with vaccine complacency).
All of this is obviously of concern to Mainland China, which is betting heavily on their ability to control Omicron with the same tactics they have used to control previous variants.
A concern punctuated by the fact that well over 2 weeks into their full lockdown, Shanghai continues to report increasing case counts. Exactly what Shanghai considers `asymptomatic' isn't clear, given the incredibly lopsided ratio of cases to `asymptomatic infections' being reported.
April 12 (0-24:00) Information on confirmed cases and asymptomatic infections in various districts of the city
Released in Shanghai 2022-04-12 21:10
The Municipal Health and Health Commission notified this morning (13th): From 0 to 24:00 on April 12, 2022, there were 1,189 new confirmed cases of local new coronary pneumonia and 25,141 asymptomatic infections, of which 23 confirmed cases were previously asymptomatic infections. 867 confirmed cases and 24,500 asymptomatic infections were found in isolation and control, and the rest were found in the investigation of relevant risk groups.
Although China has promised a more `targeted' response in Shanghai, and has dangled the `carrot' of some areas of the city seeing reduced restrictions, Reuters this morning is reporting that `Shanghai vows punishment for COVID lockdown violators as cases hit 25,000'.
Things there are obviously still not going to plan.
Stay tuned.
