Experts suggest extending Level 3 COVID-19 alert: CECC head
ROC Central News Agency
05/24/2021 05:36 PM
Taipei, May 24 (CNA) Local experts have suggested that Taiwan's Level 3 COVID-19 alert be extended rather than allowed to expire Friday given that domestic transmission of the disease remains severe, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said Monday.
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), however, has not made a final decision on the issue, said Chen, who also heads the CECC.
The Level 3 alert was originally announced on May 19 and set to last until May 28.
Chen commented on the issue after Keelung Mayor Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) publicly called on the CECC to maintain the Level 3 alert across Taiwan for another two weeks after the initial May 28 expiry date.
Given that the sources of many confirmed cases remain unknown and local health authorities have been unable to establish contact with some of the confirmed cases, it would be better that the alert continues, Lin said early Monday.
Another unresolved problem, Lin said, is that it remains unclear exactly how the disease is being spread outside the Greater Taipei area.
According to COVID-19 Level 3 alert guidelines, places of business and public venues other than those involving essential services, law enforcement, medical care, and government offices are advised to close.
For those that remain open, strict mask wearing and social distancing are required.
The CECC also announced it would close schools at all levels across Taiwan until May 28 as part of the Level 3 alert, a measure that according to the CECC's alert chart was supposed to be reserved for when rapid containment of a community transmission was necessary.
Commenting on the same issue, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said it seems unlikely that the Level 3 alert will be lifted on May 28 as he expected another rise in domestic infections to occur around that time, without going into detail on why that would be.
He will talk with New Taipei Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) on if and when to officially announce to extend the Level 3 alert in the neighboring cities and keep schools closed for a period of time, Ko said.
Meanwhile, Chen said Monday that the CECC has been retroactively adding cases to the past week's case count starting Saturday to more accurately reflect the status of the pandemic in the country.
Chen has previously explained that the reporting backlog was being caused by a "bottleneck" in the reporting system due to the high number of confirmed cases in recent days.
According to Chen, the CECC's previous prediction that the period between May 15 to May 17 was the peak of the infection curve remains unchanged.
Currently, the positive test rate for people taking rapid COVID-19 tests has fallen to 5.9 percent in Taipei from 8 percent a day ago and has remained at around 4 percent in New Taipei.
Other counties and cities have done a significantly lower number of rapid screenings compared to the Greater Taipei area, and positive test rates are also lower, he said.
As of Monday, Taipei and New Taipei have had 2,000-plus cases, or more than 80 percent of all confirmed COVID-19 infections in Taiwan, making the two northern municipalities the epicenter of the pandemic.
(By Chen Chieh-ling, Chiang Hui-chung, Wang Shu-feng and Joseph Yeh)
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