CORONAVIRUS/No new COVID-19 cases in Taiwan for 8 straight days

Taipei, May 15 (CNA) Taiwan confirmed no new cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus for the eighth consecutive day on Friday, keeping the total at 440 since the pandemic began late last year, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).

It was also the 33rd straight day with no domestically transmitted infections and the eighth day with no imported infections recorded in Taiwan, according to CECC statistics.

At a daily press briefing, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who also heads the CECC, said talks about easing restrictions imposed to slow the spread of the virus are currently under discussion.

The CECC said a day earlier that professional baseball games in Taiwan will increase maximum audience attendance to 2,000 from Friday.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 late last year, Taiwan has recorded 440 cases, 349 of which have been classified as imported and 55 as local infections, according to CECC statistics.

The other 36 cases are a cluster infection on a Navy vessel that returned April 9 from a Pacific goodwill mission. Those cases have not yet been classified as either local or imported, CECC data showed.

To date, 387 COVID-19 patients in Taiwan have recovered, seven have died, with the remainder hospitalized, the CECC said.

Globally, COVID-19 has infected 4,470,565 people in 187 countries and regions, including 1,440,348 in the United States, 252,245 in Russia, 233,151 in the United Kingdom, 229,540 in Spain and 223,096 in Italy, with a total of 301,305 fatalities, according to CECC statistics as of Friday.