A nationwide mask mandate might be completely lifted in May, as daily case numbers continue to fall, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
As of yesterday, masks are no longer required for indoor venues except for healthcare centers, nursing facilities, public transportation venues and other designated places.
The mandate might be totally lifted in May, depending on the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage and local infection situation, said Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the center.
Photo: CNA
He said that 114,505 new local cases were reported last week, which is 17.3 percent lower than the previous week, and each of the three waves of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 since last year were smaller and shorter than the previous one.
The CECC yesterday reported 11,808 new local cases, 252 imported cases and 44 deaths.
With daily case numbers dropping, no major wave of infections is expected soon, although there would be slight fluctuations in daily cases, he said.
Photo: Tsai Ssu-pei, Taipei Times
As the full mask mandate has been in place for 811 days, many people might continue wearing masks for several months before they are used to not wearing them anymore, he said.
Regarding the current mask restrictions, Civil Aeronautics Administration Deputy Director Ho Shu-ping (何淑萍) said that masks are still required in trains, cable cars, buses, taxis, boats and aircraft, as well as inside “paid areas” or “controlled areas” of railway, subway, cable car or bus stations, airports and sea passenger terminals.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, said that people who are practicing seven days of self-health disease prevention, including inbound travelers, are still required to wear a mask when going out, but the center would review that rule soon.
Starting from Wednesday next week, the government would no longer provide a free rapid test kit for international inbound travelers and close contacts living with a confirmed case, he said.
Inbound travelers who have symptoms of COVID-19 can report to airport or port quarantine officers to be tested, or they can purchase rapid test kits at pharmacies or retailers, he added.
Weekly genome sequencing data showed that 66 percent of local sequenced cases had the BA.2.75 Omicron subvariant, while 32 percent had BQ.1 and about 3 percent had BA.5, said CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), who is deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division.
The percentage of BQ.1 cases doubled from 15 percent in the previous week, Lo said, adding that neither it nor the BA.2.75 subvariant are expected to have a major effect on the local COVID-19 situation.
To better understand the nation’s natural infection rate of COVID-19, the CECC plans to test to 7,000 randomly selected blood samples from the Taiwan Blood Services Foundation between January and June to conduct a COVID-19 serum antibody survey — testing for the anti-nucleocapsid protein, he said.
Starting from this month, donors of the selected blood samples would receive a notification by mail or e-mail allowing them to opt out of the survey, he said, adding that they can also opt out by calling the CDC’s 1922 or 0800-001-922 hotlines, within two weeks of receiving the notification.
The blood samples would be anonymized for the survey, so the foundation and the CDC would not be able to link the samples with the donors, nor would the donors be notified of the results, Lo said.
An analysis of the study would be published after it is completed, he said.
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