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Important global outbreak alert by CECC
Third wave of Omicron infections remains at low point with average of 86 new domestic cases (complications) per day; CECC confirms 36 new cases of Omicron subvariants
On April 13, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) reported an average of 86 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 (with complications) per day from April 8 to April 13 after relaxed epidemic prevention measures became effective on March 20. This average of new cases per day was nearly the same as the daily average of 84 cases in the previous seven days (March 31 to April 7). The CECC also reported an average of 17 new deaths per day in the last week, a number that was virtually no different from the daily average of 15 deaths over the last week (March 31-April 7). Of these COVID-19 deaths, 99% of the deceased had chronic diseases, 63% had not received three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 95% were 60 years of age or older. Based on the trends in case reports, the use of medical resources, prescriptions for oral antiviral medications, positivity rates in residential care facilities and other data, COVID-19 infections remain at a low point and shown the same trend as the infections before the holiday.
The CECC pointed out that there were a total of 36 cases of Omicron subvariants detected over the last week. Of these cases, 24 were domestic, including 15 BA.2.75, four cases of BA.5, two cases of BF.7, two cases of XBB (none of which were XBB.1.5), and one case of BQ.1, and the other 12 cases were imported, including nine cases of BA.2.75, thre cases of XBB (two cases of which were BA.2.75). Based on the surveillance data for the past four weeks, the dominant strain circulating in Taiwan remains to be BA.2.75 (accounting for 66% of the cases), followed by XBB (11%) and then BQ.1 (10%).