The convener of the health ministry’s immunization advisory committee says that it is too early for Taiwan to drop its “zero COVID” approach and simply learn to live with the Omicron variant.
Dr. Lee Ping-ing, convener of the health ministry’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, was speaking during a radio interview on Thursday.
Lee cites the examples of Australia and the UK, which he says have similar rates of vaccination as Taiwan. He says that the decision in both countries to live with Omicron has led to an excessive increase in the number of severe COVID cases and COVID-related deaths.
Lee says if Omicron were to become widespread in Taiwan and authorities made a similar decision to live with the variant, Taiwan could expect to see hundreds of new severe COVID cases each day, along with a daily death toll of between 50 and 100. Lee says that this would immediately overwhelm Taiwan’s hospitals.
He says that while Taiwan will one day have to accept the Omicron variant as a part of life, that day has not yet arrived. Lee says that Taiwan is still in a transitional stage between containing COVID at all costs and allowing it to circulate. He says the goal for now must remain making Taiwan COVID-free.
Lee also says he believes that an optimistic scenario would be if Taiwan could drop its zero COVID approach while still implementing preventative measures during the second half of the year.
Lee says he believes Taiwan’s people will need one to two additional COVID booster shots beyond the initial booster that’s now being offered. He also says there is not yet any consensus about whether next-generation vaccines will be offered in the future. That’s because there is no plan for whether to include the original COVID virus and its variants or only the variants in such a vaccine.