Taiwan adds 16,578 local COVID cases, will expand weekly cap of arrivals to 200,000

台灣新增 COVID 本土病例 16,578 例，每週入境總量將增加至 200,000 人次

CECC announces expansion of weekly cap on international arrivals from Dec.1


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) confirmed 16,578 local COVID cases on Monday (Nov. 14), with 41 imported cases and 40 deaths.

The number of local cases remained unchanged from the same day last week.

Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC's medical response division, reported that among randomly sampled local cases last week, 98% were infected with Omicron BA.5. A new variant, BQ.1, was detected among sampled local infections last week.

Lo confirmed the local case infected with BQ.1 is a young man in his 20s living in central Taiwan. The man had no contact with anyone traveling to other countries recently, nor with other local infections, developing only mild symptoms.

Meanwhile, BQ.1, XBB, and BF.7 were the primary new Omicron variants found among sampled imported infections so far this year.

At Monday's press briefing, CECC head Victor Wang (王必勝) announced there would be an expansion in the weekly cap of international passenger arrivals into Taiwan to 200,000 from Dec. 1 as the number of local infections is decreasing.

Local cases

Local cases included 7,850 males and 8,722 females, ranging in age from under 5 to their 90s. A total of 18 cases are still under investigation.

New Taipei City reported 2,640 cases, 2,324 in Taichung City, 2,225 cases in Kaohsiung City, 1,811 in Taoyuan City, 1,646 in Tainan City, 1,315 in Taipei City, 901 in Changhua County, 514 in Pingtung County, 442 Yunlin County, 426 in Hsinchu City, 417 in Hsinchu City, 394 in Miaoli County, 402 in Chiayi County, 299 in Nantou County, 258 in Chiayi County, 232 in Yilan County, 188 in Hualien County, 187 in Keelung City, 179 in Chiayi City, 83 in Taitung County, 50 in Kinmen County, 42 in Penghu County, and 5 in Lienchiang County.

Imported cases

The 41 imported cases included 17 males and 24 females, ranging in age from under 5 to their 70s.

COVID deaths

The 40 deaths included 29 males and 11 females, ranging in age from their 40s to 90s. All were classified as severe cases and 38 had a history of chronic disease. Among them, 28 had not received the third dose of a COVID vaccine.

A man in his 40s, who had a history of chronic disease and had a fourth-dose jab, was the youngest death recorded on Monday. In Taiwan, approximately 90% of the deceased after infection had multiple chronic or cardiovascular diseases.

Total COVID case statistics

Since the pandemic began, Taiwan has confirmed 8,050,901 cases, of which 8,013,870 were local and 36,977 were imported. So far, 13,602 individuals have succumbed to the disease, with 17 deaths reported among imported cases.