2020/12/30 11:23 (EVA Air photo) (EVA Air photo) TAIPEI (Taiwan News) Taiwan s two major airlines will cease all flights to the U.K. beginning in January as a new strain of the Wuhan coronavirus rages in that country. A new strain of the virus, identified as B.1.1.7, has reared its head in the U.K. and been found to be up to 70 percent more transmissible than the original virus that came out of Wuhan, China, last year. On Monday (Dec. 28), the U.K. reported 41,385 new COVID-19 cases, the highest single-day rise in the country since the pandemic began. In response, both Taiwan s China Airlines (CAL) and EVA Air announced on Tuesday (Dec. 29) that they will be suspending both passenger and cargo flights between Taiwan and the U.K. beginning Jan. 1, reported CNA. Last week, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced that in order to avoid adverse impacts caused by the developments, the number of passeng
BEIJING China is encouraging tens of millions of migrant workers not to travel home during February’s Lunar New Year holiday to prevent spread of the coronavirus.
The call issued by the National Health Commission is extraordinary because the Lunar New Year is China’s most important traditional holiday. It’s the only time of the year when many workers can travel home to see their families.
China has limited local transmission of the coronavirus, but authorities remain on high alert about a possible resurgence. Already, schools are scheduled to begin the Lunar New Year vacation a week early and tourists have been told not to visit Beijing during the holiday.
Taiwan bans non-resident foreigners
MORE CONTAGIOUS: Quarantine rules would also be changing after a Taiwanese teenager who returned from the UK was found to have the new variant of the virus
By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
Starting from tomorrow, all non-resident foreign nationals are temporarily banned from entering Taiwan for a month, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced yesterday, as it confirmed Taiwan’s first case of the new COVID-19 variant from the UK.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that border control and quarantine measures would be tightened to prevent the new, more contagious coronavirus variant, which was first reported in the UK and has since spread to other continents.
Photo source: Pexels
Taipei, Dec. 30 (CNA) Taiwan is in the process of buying 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from foreign suppliers and expects the first delivery in March at the earliest, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said in a statement Wednesday.
The CECC has secured access to 4.76 million doses of vaccine through the international COVAX allocation program and 10 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, the statement said.
Talks with another international company to buy 5 million doses of its vaccine are nearing a conclusion, it said. The possible first delivery is expected to be made in March 2021 at the earliest, the CECC said.
CECC secures 15 million COVID-19 vaccine doses
By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said that Taiwan has secured nearly 15 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, and a purchase of 5 million more is being negotiated, but the earliest delivery would be in March.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, said that the figure includes 4.76 million doses from the COVAX global distribution program, and 10 million doses from the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca PLC.
Negotiations to purchase about 5 million doses from another drug company are ongoing, he said.
A nurse yesterday administers the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Clinical Hospital in Szczecin, northwestern Poland.