Third wave of Omicron infections continues to subside with average of 8,804 new domestic cases daily in last week; CECC confirms 65 new cases of Omicron subvariants
Date：2023-03-17On March 16, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced an average of 8,959 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) per day over the last week (March 10-16). Of these confirmed cases, 8,804 were domestic and 155 were imported. The CECC also reported an average of 41 deaths per day in the last week. There is a downward trend in the number of confirmed cases compared to the previous week. Regarding Omicron subvariants, the CECC confirmed 65 new cases of Omicron subvariants, including 39 domestic cases and 26 imported cases.
The CECC reported the average number of new domestic cases per day in each city as follows: 1,703 in New Taipei City, 1,072 in Taichung City, 1,046 in Kaohsiung City, 953 in Taoyuan City, 794 in Taipei City, 749 in Tainan City, 359 in Changhua County, 266 in Hsinchu County, 241 in Pingtung County, 227 in Miaoli County, 227 in Hsinchu City, 194 in Yilan County,181 in Yunlin County, 164 in Keelung City, 148 in Nantou County, 140 in Chiayi County, 123 in Hualien County, 98 in Chiayi City, 63 in Taitung County, 35 in Kinmen County, 20 in Penghu County, and one in Lienchiang County. Of the COVID-19 deaths that occurred in the last week, 94% of the deceased had chronic diseases, 63% had not received three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 93% were 60 years of age or older. As of 2020, there have been a cumulative total of 10,206,482 confirmed cases and 18,656 COVID-19 deaths in Taiwan.
The CECC pointed out that there were a total of 65 cases of Omicron subvariants detected over the last week. Of these cases, 39 were domestic, including 30 cases of BA.2.75, four cases of BQ.1, three cases of XBB (including two cases of XBB.1.5), and two cases of BA.5, and the other 26 cases were imported, including 13 cases of XBB (seven of which are XBB.1.5), eight cases of BA.2.75, three cases of BA.5, one case of BQ.1, and one case of BA.2. The dominant strain circulating in Taiwan remains to be BA.2.75, while BQ.1, XBB, and BA.5 are relatively less dominant.