Taiwan reports 124 Covid-19 deaths, including 9-year-old boy, but island ‘closer to peak’
- Health authorities are watching closely to see if Dragon Boat Festival holiday prompts a spike in cases
- Lockdowns in mainland China and their impact on global supply chain bottlenecks are among uncertainties for Taiwan’s economic growth, says statistics office
The island’s Central Epidemic Command Centre reported 124 deaths, down from a record 152 on Saturday.
The self-ruled island also reported 62,080 new locally transmitted cases on Sunday, lower than the 68,118 cases reported a day earlier. There were a total of 30 imported cases, the health authority said on Sunday.
The youngest of the most recent Covid-19 fatalities was a nine-year-old boy. He had suffered from congenital heart disease and was infected with Covid-19 while in hospital before dying from multiple organ failure.
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Among the island’s adult population, 90 per cent have received the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine and 82.05 per cent have received their second dose, according to Health Minister Chen Shih-chung.
The authority was monitoring whether the number of cases would rebound over the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, Chen said on Sunday, the last day of the three-day festival.
“Overall traffic [so far] has been relatively quiet,” Chen said, suggesting fewer opportunities for transmission. “We haven’t seen a significant increase in traffic [from tourists and general travel].”
Visiting a vaccination facility in Taipei, Chen said he expected a “turnaround” by June 10.
“We are getting closer and closer [to the peak],” he said, according to NowNews. “The estimate is around June 10, when there is an opportunity of a turnaround.”
Chen said the overall vaccination rate among adults was “good”, adding that he believed the probability of a new wave of infections after the holiday was “not high”.
He also urged children between five to 11 years be given two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to be fully protected from the virus.
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Taiwan has been considering easing border controls and shortening quarantine for business travellers. For now, people arriving on the island must quarantine for seven days and monitor their health for a further seven days after that.
Chen said there was still discussion about whether Taiwan should now ease its pandemic border rules, adding that cutting the quarantine period from seven days to three was the most probable outcome.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s economy was likely to grow more slowly this year because of global inflation and Covid-19 outbreaks, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said last month. The island’s gross domestic product is expected to rise 3.91 per cent this year, down from 4.42 per cent growth forecast in February.
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The statistics office said Taiwan’s surge in Covid-19 infections and inflation driven by the war in Ukraine were affecting consumers even as demand for semiconductors, a key driver of Taiwan’s economy, remained strong.
The island’s economy is also facing growing risk from a slowdown in its top trading partner, mainland China, which has been crippled by a prolonged lockdown of international hub Shanghai and movement curbed in numerous cities, including Beijing.
The statistics office said lockdowns in China and their impact on global supply chain bottlenecks were among uncertainties for Taiwan’s economic growth this year.
