Taiwan reported 175 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday. That includes 174 new domestic cases and one imported case.
The addition of 26 more deaths from the disease brings the death toll from the pandemic to 437. The deceased include 15 men and 11 women, with the youngest patient in her fifties. They contracted the disease between May 6 and June 10 and died between June 4 and June 12.
Health Minister Chen Shih-chung says the outbreak is slowing down but he is reminding the public not to let down its guard.
Transport Minister Wang Kwo-tsai is thanking the public for avoiding travel during the Dragon Boat Festival weekend. He says that the high speed rail only saw 4.8% of its seats occupied on Saturday, while the trains saw 2.3% and intercity buses saw 10.8%.
Of the new domestic cases announced on Saturday, 79 were men and 95 were women. They began experiencing symptoms between May 23 and June 12.
The Sunday totals by city and county are as follows:
New Taipei City: 81
Taipei: 62
Taoyuan City: 16
Keelung City: 7
Changhua County: 4
Hsinchu County: 2
Taichung City: 1
Hualien County: 1
As for the source of the domestic cases outside of Greater Taipei reported on Sunday, a specific source of transmission is known for 20 cases and the source is unknown for seven, while four are still being investigated.
The imported case was a Taiwanese man in his 20s returning from the US.
Taiwan has seen a total of 12,921 cases. These include 11,713 domestic, 1,155 imported, 36 from a navy ship, two from an aircraft, and others from unknown sources.
During Sunday’s press conference, health officials also responded to concerns about the shortage of vaccines. They say Taiwan has ordered 20 million vaccine doses from overseas, but there is currently a global shortage, so most of them have not arrived yet. Officials expect most of the doses to arrive by the end of August.
Health officials have also addressed questions surrounding COVID-19 vaccines currently in development in Taiwan. On Thursday, Taiwanese company Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp announced the results of its Phase II trials on a COVID-19 vaccine. The company says the vaccine generated a strong immune response in participants.
But officials say that any domestic COVID-19 vaccine must have a neutralizing antibody potency level at least equal to that of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. Only then will the Food and Drug Administration consider granting an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the company to begin distributing doses to the public.