COVID-19 has been ravaging the world since 2019, and the variants of this disease just keep coming in new waves. In Japan, most COVID-19 cases are from the most recent, and rapidly spreading, Delta variant.
Daily new COVID-19 cases in Japan surpassed 4,000 on July 31, and even went over 5,000 on August 5. On Thursday, the daily new case count still hovered just below 5,000 people. Surprisingly, people in their 20s accounted for 30% of these recent cases.
Young people are being affected in Taiwan as well. A nurse in her 20s contracted COVID-19, and doctors discovered an enormous loss of lung function.
COVID-19 expert Dr. Chiang Kuan-yu says that there are long term effects of the disease that cannot be seen from the outside, including deep lung damage. He also says that doctors are seeing a higher percentage of young patients because of the easily transmitted Delta variant, and because there are not enough vaccine doses. So far, it has mostly health workers and the elderly that have been vaccinated, and so cases among unvaccinated young people are on the rise.
Chiang says that the purpose of vaccines is to decrease the risk of a more serious infection. A mild case might mean some difficulty breathing, but for others, especially the unvaccinated, this disease can be lethal.
Although Taiwan has relatively few Delta variant cases, doctors say that people cannot let their guard down. Without proper border regulations and a higher vaccination rate, doctors warn that the Delta variant could still hit Taiwan hard.