Taiwan’s authorities stated on Saturday restrictions could be tightened after a uncommon surge in home transmission of the Omicron variant, saying it wanted to behave now to forestall being overwhelmed, although total numbers stay fairly low.
After months of no or few neighborhood infections, Taiwan has seen a small rise in native Covid-19 circumstances for the reason that starting of January, primarily linked to employees on the predominant worldwide airport within the northern metropolis of Taoyuan who had been contaminated by arriving passengers, Reuters experiences.
On Friday night the federal government introduced 60 new circumstances at a manufacturing unit close to the airport after testing 1,000 employees.
There have been no deaths and many of the circumstances have had solely gentle or no signs.
In an announcement, premier Su Tseng-chang stated that, although this outbreak has introduced no critical sickness, steps wanted to be taken. “If the pandemic can’t be contained, it can nonetheless trigger a burden on the medical system,” he stated.
New restrictions will embody a ban on consuming and consuming on public transport and limits on the variety of individuals visiting temples, forward of the week-long lunar new yr vacation, which begins on the finish of this month.
Testing can be expanded to succeed in the biggest variety of attainable contacts, stated the well being minister, Chen Shih-chung.
“In fact we predict this pandemic is threatening, so we should elevate our vigilance,” he stated.
Taiwan has been extremely profitable at controlling the pandemic because of early and strict border checks and an efficient tracing system.
Greater than 70% of individuals in Taiwan have obtained two vaccine doses and booster pictures are presently being rolled out, with about 15% of residents having obtained a 3rd shot up to now.
