The level 2 COVID-19 alert would be extended for two more weeks until Sept. 6, but some restrictions would be eased, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced yesterday, as it reported two local and eight imported cases, as well as one death.
As the local COVID-19 situation has improved, but sporadic local infections with unclear infection sources are still being reported, the level 2 alert would remain in place, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC.
Places that would remain closed include leisure businesses, such as dance halls, pubs, nightclubs, KTVs, gaming halls, video arcades and mahjong parlors, he said.
Photo: CNA
The maximum number of people allowed at indoor gatherings would be increased to 80, and the maximum for outdoor gatherings raised to 300, Chen said, adding that a disease prevention plan must be submitted for gatherings exceeding those numbers.
People eating at restaurants who live together would no longer need to be separated by table dividers, be seated in a checkerboard arrangement or have food served separately for each person, he said.
People would be allowed to visit hospital patients in intensive care units, hospice and palliative care divisions, respiratory care wards, psychiatric divisions and pediatric wards, or patients who have a mental impairment, are in a critical condition or have been hospitalized for seven days or more, Chen said.
Study centers, indoor amusement parks, recreational fishing spots and beaches would be allowed to reopen if they can comply with disease prevention guidelines, he said.
People would be allowed to swim, snorkel and carry out other other activities at the beach, as long as they wear a mask when they are not in the water, Chen added.
Currently, only limited activities that allow social distancing, such as scuba diving, are permitted.
Other general rules would remain the same, such as wearing a mask in public, except when eating and drinking; mandatory contact tracing and social distancing; and crowd control and capacity limits in businesses and public venues — 1.5m apart (2.25m2 per person) indoors and 1m apart (1m2 per person) outdoors, the CECC said.
Wedding banquets and public memorial ceremonies must comply with the Ministry of the Interior’s disease prevention measures, while making toasts at each table is still banned.
Meanwhile, Chen said that the two new local cases were a man in his 40s and a woman in her 50s, both residents of New Taipei City.
The infection source of one is unclear and contact tracing is ongoing for the other, he said.
Of the 14,698 cases reported between May 11 and Thursday, 13,581 people, or 92.4 percent, have been released from isolation, he said.
Recent daily case counts have been low, and the testing positivity rate has been lower than 0.01 percent for some time, sometimes as low as 0.004 percent, indicating that the local COVID-19 situation is under control, Chen said.
However, people should remain vigilant as sporadic cases have been reported, and prompt contact tracing and isolation measures should be conducted, he said, adding that the global COVID-19 situation is serious, so even strict border controls cannot protect against the virus forever.
The global COVID-19 situation, local vaccine coverage and the efficacy of vaccines against new variants are all aspects that need to be considered when keeping the level 2 alert in place, he said.
Yesterday’s eight imported cases were from Albania, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Africa and the US, and they arrived in Taiwan on Wednesday and Thursday last week, CECC data showed.
A man in his 60s, who had underlying health conditions, died from COVID-19, the data showed.
Separately yesterday, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said the city has earmarked NT$2.8 billion (US$99.97 million) for 2.5 million doses of COVID-19 booster shots.
The city council would need to vote on the proposed budget, he added.
Responsibility for procuring doses for the first and second jabs rests with the central government, he said, adding that the type of vaccines to be used for the boosters would be determined by science.
Additional reporting by Tsai Ya-hua and CNA
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