Taipei, April 27 (CNA) The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) held its final press conference Thursday ahead of its scheduled disbandment on May 1, when COVID-19 will be downgraded from a Category 5 to a Category 4 communicable disease.
At the briefing, CECC head Victor Wang (王必勝) said 99 people had developed severe complications of COVID-19 over the last seven days -- up from 93 in the previous seven-day period -- and 13 people had died from the disease.
Since March 20, the number of severe COVID-19 infections has remained more or less stable at its lowest point this year, Wang said.
Wang noted that after May 1, all updates on COVID-19 along with other diseases will be made during the Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) weekly press briefing on Tuesdays.
He said the CDC will continue to recommend that people get at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot this year to boost their immunity, adding that it is still uncertain whether the vaccines will be needed in 2024.
The CECC was formed by the Centers for Disease Control on Jan. 20, 2020, following the spread of the then-unknown disease first reported by authorities in Wuhan, China on Dec. 31, 2019.
Taiwan reported its first COVID-19 case on Jan. 21, 2020, a Taiwanese national returning from Wuhan, and had recorded more than 10.15 million cases as of March 10 before the definition of COVID-19 cases to be reported was limited to those with serious complications on March 20, health ministry data showed.
