TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced weekly confirmed COVID-19 cases (June 4–10) increased by 25% from the previous week, indicating a sixth wave of Omicron, at a press conference on Tuesday (June 11).

CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) said 328 new COVID cases were confirmed last week, an increase from 263 cases from the previous week. Additionally, there were 20 deaths, a decrease from the 26 deaths the previous week. Tseng said 90% of COVID deaths involved people over 65, per CNA.

Tseng said that the number of COVID cases in Taiwan is about 1.53 per 100,000 people, higher than the epidemic threshold of 1.47. Tseng said analysis of the international COVID situation shows that KP.2 and KP.3 variants have a strong ability to avoid immunity.

As Taiwan's population faces greater exposure to highly transmissible new variants, cases may continue well into August and September before declining.

CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said the proportion of KP.2 and KP.3 variants in Taiwan has seen slight growth. The proportion of KP.2 among domestic COVID infections is 10% and KP.3 is 9%.

According to the CDC, 2.764 million XBB vaccines have been administered, with a national vaccination rate of 11.36%. Currently, there are approximately 2.889 million doses of the Moderna XBB vaccine and approximately 48,000 doses of the Novavax XBB vaccine available to the public.

The CDC urges those who have not yet received the XBB vaccine to take action as soon as possible to safeguard their health.