The CECC has reported just over 20,000 new local cases of COVID-19 today,
along with 26 new fatalities from the disease.

The Central Epidemic Command Center says, of today's new domestic cases, New
Taipei has reported the most, followed by Taichung and Taoyuan.

Meanwhile, medical experts in Taiwan are warning of a new subvariant of the
coronavirus, called XBB.1.5, saying it could become the world's dominant
strain.

They say the XBB.1.5 strain is highly transmissible and shows a much higher
ability to escape immune system detection, and warn Taiwan could see a spike
in COVID cases from the subvariant around the middle of March.

Experts speculate, however, that after case numbers level out afterwards,
Taiwan could have enough herd immunity to consider loosening epidemic
prevention restrictions.

The Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 currently accounts for 1/4th of confirmed
COVID cases in the U.S., and the European Center for Disease Preventation and
Control has estimated that it may become an epidemic strain in Europe within
two months.

(TT)