On April 27, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) reported an average of 99 new confirmed domestic cases of COVID-19 (with complications) per day from April 21 to 27 after relaxed epidemic prevention measures became effective on March 20. This average of new cases per day was slightly higher than the daily average of 93 cases in the previous week (April 14 to 20). The CECC also reported an average of 13 deaths per day in the last week, a number that was the same as the daily average of 13 deaths in the last week (April 14-20). Of the COVID-19 deaths that occurred in the last week, 98% of the deceased had chronic diseases, 74% had not received three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 94% were 60 years of age or older. Based on the trends in case reports, the use of medical resources, prescriptions for oral antiviral medications, positivity rate among residential care facilities and other data, COVID-19 infections remain at a low point.
The CECC pointed out that there were a total of 151 cases of Omicron subvariants detected over the last week. Of these cases, 107 were domestic, including 67 cases of BA.2.75, 26 cases of XBB(of which, 18 cases were XBB.1.5, six were XBB.1.9, and two were XBB.1.16), eight cases of BQ.1, and six cases of BA.5, and the other 44 cases were imported, including 37 cases of XBB (of which 23 were XBB.1.5, five were XBB.1.9, and six were XBB.1.16), four cases of BA.2.75, and three cases of BQ.1. Based on the surveillance data for the past four weeks, the dominant strain circulating in Taiwan remains to be BA.2.75 (accounting for 61% of the cases), followed by XBB (25%) and then BQ.1 (7%). The CECC will continue to closely monitor the situation.