Thread by @WilliamYang120

Breaking: #Taiwan reported 493 in total. 7 imported, 320 local and 166 backlogged.

Wanhua: 36 Massage parlor: 2 and unidenfitable: 49. Taipei and New Taipei are still the epicenter.

The number of cases in other counties are increasing the the range has expanded.

21 deaths today, another new day. The death rate is increasing as well, according to Chen.

Chen said the number of cases outside of the epicenters are increasing and the range is expanding. He said the numbers related to Wanhua is decreasing, showing that the new cases are not necessarily connected to the original hotspots.

Chen said the new hotspots are local traditional markets and supermarkets so he warned citizens not to make these venues too crowded and people need to clean their hands properly after getting home.

Chen said they have received a lot of applications for trying to import their own vaccines but the deal need to be signed by the central government and the original manufacturer and the vaccines also need to be distributed by the CECC.

He said the vaccines' safety and efficacy need to have a certain level of monitoring and oversight.

Chen said the number of backlogged cases in Taipei and New Taipei is relatively dropping and he said the speed of reporting cases is becoming faster.

He said the adjusted numbers are still rather stable so there are no very clear signs that the outbreak is improving. He called on citizens to stick to the level three regulations and he said citizens need to watch out if they visit local traditional markets.

He called on citizens to avoid lengthy gatherings or try not to have gatherings too.

He said the cases related to sex industries trying to secretly operate has dropped and he thanked the police. He called on the citizens not to visit these venues and said any venues being caught operating secretly will be fined.

He said there are 42920 number of vaccines being injected yesterday and Kaohsiung city has injected a lot yesterday.

He said next Tuedsay, the CECC will distribute the next batch of the vaccines. He called on frontline medical staff to immediately be vaccinated.

Chen said there will be 500 local clinics joining the vaccination process and they plan to further expand that in August. He said this is to help improve the speed of vaccination.

Three hospitals have been cleared out in Taipei and New Taipei City to specifically treat #COVID19 patients.

The CECC continues to roll out the clear out of certain hospitals across #Taiwan to ensure that there will be more hospitals available for the possible increase of patients.

There are 180 hospitals that can be used to treat #COVID19 patients and the number of wards are more than 4000.

There are 320 specific wards in Taipei and New Taipei. ICU capacity is a huge challenge for patients with serious symptoms.

CECC admitted that Taipei and New Taipei's ICU capacity is specifically strained and he said there are now 97 beds in ICU across Taipei and New Taipei. They are calling on hospitals to increase the capacity of ICU to treat more patients with serious patients.

Chen is giving the details of the situation about how the CECC is considering the change of quarantine regulation for airline staff. He said he is in charge of all the changes.

The CECC said the earliest death case is dating back to May 23 and they will need a few days to receive the report from hospitals.

They said that's why there are some delays in the date of the death and the date that they are reported.

Chen said it is ok for the Taipei and New Taipei city or other local governments to strategize how to execute level four scenarios. He said the CECC is also strategizing about how to roll out level four.

Chen said the frontline medical staff in all counties across #Taiwan should be able to get vaccines.

He said pregnant frontline medical staff should be able to get moderna but the CECC hasn't approved the vaccination for family members of frontline medical staff yet.

CECC said 19 of the 21 death cases have history of chronic disease.

Chen said the CECC will humbly receive all criticisms and he will see if Taiwan can improve in any way. He said the deals were already signed last year with major vaccine providers, and he said #Taiwan shouldn't be considered as being too late for preparing to get vaccination.

Chen said the overall death rate in #Taiwan now is about 1.2%.

NTU is now considering donating its PCR machines to help increase the capacity for #Taiwan to process all the tests.

Chen said there are risks in gathering inside traditional markets and he called on local markets to increase the screening of their amount of customers.

CECC said there are already some citizens doing self-voluntary scheduling of which households should go to the market to shop on which day.

CECC said they have been getting in touch with vaccine manufacturers and the original manufacturers said they usually deal with the government of each country. The CECC said they need to ensure the quality of delivery so that's why they need to directly engage the manufacturer.

Chen said the reality is that if they can receive authorization from original manufacturers provided by businesses that want to import #COVID19 rapid test, but they won't let these businesses to proceed with these procurement on their own, because these businesses won't...

... be able to be responsible for anything if it goes wrong. He said the vaccines and rapid tests will have to be reviewed by the CECC and the vaccination deal signing and distribution will be approved and reviewed by the central government.

A local school insists on organizing its graduation ceremoney as originally planned, which is against the current regulations rolled out by CECC. Local government will follow the regulation to penalize the local school.

The school has been fined 300,000 NTD for insisting on holding its graduation ceremony.

The CECC said there are cases in the UK of mixing vaccines so CECC said initially, mixing vaccines seem like a possible plan.

However, the CECC said there are no evidence to prove that mixing vaccines will enhance efficacy or there will be any security concerns.

Chen said there is a reward system for any private labs that are willing to join the government to help process tests. He called on those that reach the criteria to apply and get in touch with the government.

The CECC said some of the patients in New Taipei and Taipei will develop serious symptoms and because the capacity of these places' ICU is limited so at least 39 patients were transferred to other regions in #Taiwan.

Chen said the central government has been increasing the deployment of PPE to all hospitals and they will continue to ensure that all local hospitals will have enough of these resources.

He said the priority is to separate confirmed patients from the community so it will be able to cut off the connection between them and the community.

Alright, that's it. The most important part is the new daily record of death number and the topic of Japan possibly donating its vaccine to Taiwan somehow wasn't addressed. See you all tomorrow.