Border reopening to go ahead despite caseloadNO LETUP: Yesterday’s number of cases was 8.6 percent higher than that reported on Tuesday last week and the second-highest count of the Omicron BA.5 outbreakBy Lee I-chia / Staff reporterThe border reopening plan remains unchanged, even though 49,509 new domestic COVID-19 infections were reported, the second-highest since the wave of cases involving the Omicron BA.5 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2 began in August, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, said that 49,509 new local cases, 65 imported cases and 31 deaths were confirmed yesterday. He said the local daily caseload was 8.6 percent higher than that reported on Tuesday last week and the second-highest daily count of the Omicron BA.5 outbreak, only slightly lower than the peak of 49,540 cases reported on Sept. 14. He said the fluctuations in daily caseloads has not affected plans for the nation’s border to be reopened on Thursday next week. He said that the COVID-19 prevention and response budget allocated this year was NT$94.3 billion — NT$75.6 billion from the special budget and NT$18.7 billion from the CDC’s annual operating budget — so the proposed budget of NT$84.5 billion is actually NT$9.8 billion less than this year.
