Taiwan reports 1,626 new local COVID-19 cases, 2 new deaths

TAIPEI, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan's disease monitoring agency on Tuesday announced that 1,626 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and two new deaths from the disease have been recorded in the region.

The two deaths were a child no older than five years of age and a man in his 90s, the agency said. The elderly man suffered from chronic disease and had received three COVID-19 vaccine doses.

They were respectively confirmed as COVID-19 cases on April 14 and April 15, and died on April 16 and April 19, the agency said.

Another 101 imported cases were newly reported in the region, it said.

The daily number of new local infections has surpassed 1,000 for five consecutive days. More than 60,000 residents of Taiwan are currently isolating at home, and over 470 schools across the region have totally or partially suspended classes.

To date, Taiwan has reported 37,710 confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 27,767 were local infections.