A majority of children aged 12 and under who contracted COVID-19 have shown to have mild symptoms of the disease, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Friday.
As of Thursday, Taiwan has recorded a total of 672 locally-transmitted COVID-19 cases since the most recent outbreak began in early January 2022.
Many of these cases have involved people aged in their 20s to 40s, CECC official Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) said during a daily press briefing.
Of the 672 infected patients, 82 were children aged 12 and under, with the majority of them being boys, Lo said.
Lo said 54 of the 82 children suffered only mild symptoms, with many having fever followed by a cough, runny nose, and throat irritation, while the rest were asymptomatic.
In contrast to the infected children, the majority of the 590 cases involving adults have been diagnosed as having throat irritation, the CECC official added.
According to the CECC, Taiwan has so far recorded a total of 685 cases of the Omicron variant, of which 246 were domestically transmitted and 439 were imported ones.
Regarding a family of four living in New Taipei’s Banqiao District who were recently confirmed as having COVID-19, Lo said genome sequencing showed that they had caught the Omicron variant of the disease and that their infections were linked to the Taoyuan clusters involving the Taoyuan airport, as well as a Tasty steakhouse, Askey Computer factory and the Re-Yi Distribution Service Co. in the same city.
The results so far showed that their infections were unrelated to the clusters at Far Eastern Memorial Hospital in Banqiao or the Evergreen Resort Hotel Jiaosi in Yilan County, he said.
Currently, many of the large domestically-transmitted cluster infections have been traced back to the Taoyuan international airport, with the other being the Port of Kaohsiung, Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said.
Due to the sheer number of people who are being tested for COVID-19, Chen said Taiwan’s epidemic situation and how it will develop over time will still need to be observed.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel