TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Thursday (March 16) announced 8,855 local COVID cases, a 5.82% decrease from the same day last week.
The CECC also confirmed 207 imported cases, bringing the country's total case count to 10,206,482. The 37 deaths reported brought the country's total COVID death toll to 18,656.
The number of COVID cases in Taiwan has dropped for six consecutive weeks and infections have been below 10,000 for eight-straight days. Deputy head of the CECC's medical response division Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said that last week there was an average of 8,804 local cases, 155 imported cases, and 41 deaths in a single day, all showing a downward trend from the previous week.
The 10th week of this year (March 5-11) saw a total of 64,558 new local cases, a decrease of 17.7% compared to the 78,457 cases recorded in the ninth week. The curve has continued to decline and has fallen to the lowest point in a year.
However, CECC head Victor Wang (王必勝) said that starting on March 20, self-health monitoring will enter another stage in which the reporting and quarantine requirement for mild cases will end. Wang expressed concern that this lifting of epidemic prevention measures could expose more of the elderly, people with chronic illnesses, and other vulnerable groups to the virus. He called on everyone to complete the recommended COVID vaccination regimen.