Thread by @WilliamYang120

Breaking: #Taiwan reported 401 local #COVID19 cases and there are 266 backlogged cases. 671 cases in total. 13 deaths, another new high.

New Taipei: 177 Taipei: 130 Taoyuan: 18 Keelung: 15, Kaohsiung: 14 Changhua: 10 Taichung: 7 hualien: 6

Backlogged: New Taipei; 146 Taipei; 101

Chen said among all 671: Wanhua: 152 Tea parlor: 25

Unidentifiable: 145

Chen noted that the number of cases outside of epicenter Taipei and New Taipei City have increased over the last few days.

Many of the patients who died today have chronic disease history and they also have histories of appearing in Wanhua district.

One patient who died is a woman in her 40s, one of the youngest that we've heard over the last few days. She contracted the virus by having contact with another confirmed patient.

Chen said the number of deaths has rapidly increased over the last few days. Yesterday and today have all set a new high for the death toll.

Chen said May 17 and May 19 still have the highest single day number after adjusting each day's result by adding the backlogged cases.

Chen said there is no sign that the outbreak's trend is not going down, but he said it needs to be keep monitored based on the number of backlogged cases.

Asymptomatic and mild symptom cases can conduct 7 day quarantine at home: no fever and symptoms ease, 10 days from the day they were tested positive. They would be discharged from hospital treatment.

Those who are quarantined for treatment will also be allowed to do 7-day quarantine at home by meeting the previous two criteria but also need to be tested negative through PCR test, and with a result that equal or smaller than 30.

Chen said community level clinics are very important for #Taiwan's fight against the outbreak and he said the recruited medical staff will help to increase the rollout of vaccines.

Chen said the centralized quarantine venues play an important role between hospitals and the community, so its available capacity will be crucial to #Taiwan.

Officials are continuing to seek more locations to set up centralized quarantine venues in #Taipei and New Taipei. There are still 1447 people at these venues.

Chen said those who have to be dispatched for quarantine down to central #Taiwan isn't necessarily a bad thing because the available medical resources are more available in Central and Southern #Taiwan.

NTU hospital has warned not to send all the patients to the same hospital, because they could be overwhelmed by the growing number of cases. They may now need to consider rationing out patients to other hospitals.

Chen said the majority of the death cases are patients who are much older, and he said the total number of deaths is around 1% so it isn't necessarily much higher than most countries.

Some police officers are included in category 1 and 2 of the priority list for vaccination so they will be included into the upcoming round of vaccination. There will be up to 39,000 police can be vaccinated soon.

Chen said the CECC will adjust its vaccination speed and rate and decide how to further ration the 260,000 doses that will be designated as phase 2.

Chen said one thing needs to be clarified is whether Fuson has the authorization from BionTech to sell the #COVID19 and the government needs a clear text-based contract in order to negotiate about procuring certain vaccines.

Chen said the negotiation with BNT start on August 20, and on January 11, #Taiwan had a video conference with BNT and the possibility to procure and the technological details.

Chen said in December 2020, both sides have confirmed the contract and on December 31, #Taiwan received the contract and passed the contract for approval to buy on January 6.

Chen said so far, there aren't much existing #COVID19 vaccines and he praised the creation fo COVAX to ration vaccines to each country and he said there are some unavoidable political maneuvering.

Chen said the reason why to identify those who lived or have been to Wanhua was to leave a clear record of travel record, and he said the purpose is definitely not to "stigmatize" anyone from Wanhua. He said these labels will be removed over time.

Chen said citizens who need to be vaccinated for work or other mandatory reasons are put in the fourth category on the priority list. Chen said those who are qualified should go get vaccinated right away and if there aren't enough interest, the government will open it up...

... for other categories of citizens.

Alright, that's it. The main highlight is the details from the negotiation process between #Taiwan and @BioNTech_Group. See you all tomorrow.