By Riyaz ul Khaliq
ANKARA (AA) - Taiwan has not recorded a local case of coronavirus transmission for over 100 days, local media reported Wednesday.
Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung told a news conference that there has been no local infection for 105 days, with the last one recorded on April 8, daily Taiwan News reported.
Taiwan’s overall case count since last December stands at 455, with 55 of them being local infections.
Of the rest, 364 were people who arrived from overseas and 36 cases were reported on its naval fleet.
Taiwan has conducted 79,951 coronavirus tests to date, with 78,965 negative results, the minister said.
Another Southeast Asian country -- Vietnam -- also announced a day earlier that it has had no local coronavirus case for 96 consecutive days.
Across the world, COVID-19 has claimed nearly 617,000 lives in 188 countries and regions since emerging in China last December.
Almost 15 million cases have been reported worldwide, with the US, Brazil, India, and Russia currently the worst-hit countries, according to figures compiled by the US’ Johns Hopkins University.
The data shows more than half of all patients worldwide -- some 8.48 million -- have recovered so far.