On March 30, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) reported an average of 96 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 (with complications) per day from March 24 to 30 after relaxed epidemic prevention measures became effective on March 20. This average of moderate to severe cases per day was slightly lower than the daily average of 119 cases in the month prior to the implementation of the new epidemic prevention scheme. Also, there were three new imported cases. The CECC also reported an average of 25 deaths per day in the last week, a number that was lower than the daily average of 34 deaths in the week before last week (March 17-23). Of these COVID-19 deaths, 90% of the deceased had chronic diseases, 69% had not received three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 91% 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 have shown a downward trajectory.
The CECC pointed out that there were a total of 30 cases of Omicron subvariants detected over the last week. Of these cases, 11 were domestic, including 4 cases of BQ.1, three cases of BA.2.75, three cases of XBB (none of which are XBB.1.5), and one case of BA.5, and the other 19 cases were imported, including 13 cases of XBB (7 of which are XBB.1.5), six cases of BA.2.75. There was an upward trend in cases of BQ.1 and XBB.1 and a significant decrease in cases of BA.2.75 in the past week. However, based on the surveillance data for the past four weeks, the dominant strain circulating in Taiwan remains to be BA.2.75 (accounting for 64% of the cases), followed by BQ.1 and XBB (each accounting for 11%).