Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (???) said that COVID-19 infections in Taiwan would likely peak in the next seven days, as daily domestic case numbers hit a new single-day high of 85,310 Wednesday.
After the daily new domestic case figure moved between 61,697 and 68,732 for the preceding six days, Taiwan on Wednesday saw a 29 percent increase in domestic case numbers.
Day-over-day cases have risen by between 20 and more than 40 percent several times since mid-April when cases exceeded 1,000 for the first time since early 2020.
The daily figure has been projected to keep moving higher for a while, Chen, who also heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), said during a press briefing Wednesday.
Based on the experience of other countries during the pandemic, the daily figure will be volatile, partly because of the number of tests taken and processed per day, Chen said
The upward trend was projected because new daily cases in central and southern Taiwan have been rising, in line with what has happened in northern Taiwan, said Chen.
In the past seven days, New Taipei's daily figures have plateaued at around 20,000, followed by Taipei and Taoyuan, each of which has reported between 9,000 and more than 10,000 daily new cases since May 12, CECC data showed.
Meanwhile, Kaohsiung saw its daily new cases rise from 3,261 on May 12 to 6,805 on Wednesday, with figures for Tainan overall climbing from 2,332 to 4,130 during the same period, according to CECC data.
The rise in new cases outside northern Taiwan was inevitable, Chen told lawmakers during a legislative hearing Wednesday morning, citing the growing number of PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests being taken in central and southern Taiwan in recent days.
During the CECC press briefing, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Lo Yi-chun (???) said that the latest data showed the number of daily PCR tests, which are used to confirm COVID-19 infections, hit a high of 112,951 on May 16.
This was relatively high compared to the recent figures of 85,000 to 100,000 per day mentioned by Chen on Tuesday.
The overall positive rate, meanwhile, was around 66.7 percent, similar to the recent data processed through the National Health Insurance Administration, Lo said.
The growing number of tests could be a result of the new testing sites set up in northern Taiwan since last week, and of the spread of the disease in central and southern Taiwan, Lo said.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (???) also weighed in on the issue, saying that some people had come to his city for a PCR test because the testing capacity in northern Taiwan has been strained, leading to delays in obtaining the results.
According to the health minister Tuesday, Taiwan can process up to 220,000 PCR tests per day through labs around the country.
Of Wednesday's new domestic cases, 27,230 were recorded in New Taipei -- which has been reporting the highest daily number around Taiwan since April 1 -- followed by Taipei with 12,069, Taoyuan with 9,658, Kaohsiung with 6,805, Taichung with 6,770, and Tainan with 4,130, according to the CECC.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel