Taiwan’s national karate team reported seven confirmed cases of the COVID-19 Omicron variant on Tuesday. That’s out of 22 team members. The team recently competed in the 2021 Asian Karate Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) also reported 14 additional Omicron cases on Tuesday, bringing the total to 48 so far.
CECC spokesperson Chuang Jen-hsiang said there have been no confirmed Omicron cases in Kazakhstan so it’s possible that their domestic Omicron cases have not been tested and reported yet. It is also possible that athletes coming from different countries spread the new variant of the COVID-19 virus to each other.
Taiwan’s Omicron cases have all been imported and have been discovered before they finished quarantine. They came from nine countries including the US, UK, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Canada, ESwatini, Colombia, Germany, and Nigeria. Taiwan saw its first Omicron case reported on December 11.
The CECC on Tuesday reported no new local cases of COVID-19. It reported a total of 19 imported cases, including the 14 Omicron cases, among people arriving in Taiwan. The command center did not announce any deaths, leaving the death toll from COVID-19 at 850.
The imported cases on Tuesday include nine males and 10 females, ranging in age from their teens to their 80s. They entered Taiwan from the United States, Switzerland, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Canada, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, China, and Turkey.
Of the 16,950 confirmed cases in Taiwan, 2,296 were imported with 14,600 local cases.