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CORONAVIRUS/Taiwan reports 5,544 new COVID-19 cases, 28 deaths

03/20/2023 05:12 PM
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Pedestrians, many still wearing a face mask, walk across a road in Taipei
Pedestrians, many still wearing a face mask, walk across a road in Taipei's Xinyi business district on Monday. CNA photo March 20, 2023

Taipei, March 20 (CNA) Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Monday reported 5,544 new cases of COVID-19 and 28 deaths from the disease.

Of the total number, 5,411 were domestic infections, which represented a decline of 15.9 percent from the previous week -- a huge improvement compared with the 7 percent to 8 percent week-on-week decline in recent days, according to CECC spokesperson Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞).

He said, however, that patients with mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 may not have been reporting their infections in recent days, ahead of the lifting of that requirement Monday.

Under the CECC's new "0+n" policy, COVID-19 patients with mild or asymptomatic infections no longer have to seek a telemedicine appointment and report their positive tests. Instead, they only need to monitor their health for 10 days.

Only moderate to severe COVID-19 cases -- defined as those that require hospitalization -- will now have to be reported to the government, according to the CECC.

Lo said that people who tested positive in the past few days can still report their cases until March 26, and they will be required to observe the previous "5+n" policy, which means five days of quarantine.

Starting Tuesday, he said, the CECC will focus mainly on new moderate to severe COVID-19 cases, but other cases that were recently reported will also be included in the count until March 27.

To date, Taiwan has recorded 10,236,887 COVID-19 infections and 18,803 deaths from the disease since the pandemic began in early 2020.

(By Chen Chieh-ling and Ko Lin)

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