There would be no discussion on whether to completely lift the mask mandate until next month, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
Asked about Hong Kong’s decision to lift its mask mandate today, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), the CECC’s spokesman, said that the CECC would not discuss whether Taiwan would further ease its mask mandate until the middle of next month.
Under Hong Kong’s new mask rules, people in the territory do not have to wear masks indoors or outdoors, including on public transportation, but still have to wear them in medical institutions.
Photo: CNA
Lo said that Taiwan’s mask mandate was relaxed on Feb. 20 to allow people to be mask-free in most indoor settings.
The next step would be easing quarantine and reporting rules for people who are infected, he said.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the CECC, has said a full lifting of mask requirements could take place in May, but that actual implementation would depend on vaccine coverage and the status of the local outbreak at that point.
Meanwhile, the CECC reported 10,120 new cases of COVID-19 and 40 deaths from the disease yesterday.
Among the new cases, 9,908 were contracted domestically, a 41.4 percent drop from the same day a week earlier, CECC data showed.
The decrease was partly due to the extended holiday for yesterday’s 228 Peace Memorial Day, during which many medical institutions were closed, Lo said.
The daily number is expected to rebound to about 15,000 to 20,000 today and tomorrow, Lo said.
However, the local outbreak is declining as expected and the mask mandate for schools is set to be eased on Monday next week as scheduled, he said.
To date, Taiwan has recorded 10,043,227 COVID-19 infections and 17,948 deaths from the disease since the pandemic began in early 2020.
The CECC has stopped providing daily information on the age distribution and health status of the deceased, and the number of vaccine doses they received.
It is also no longer releasing daily infection numbers for each of Taiwan’s administrative regions.
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
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