Coronavirus: Taiwan’s outbreak surges with 333 new infections
- Authorities order shutdown of all schools below university level in Taipei and New Taipei for two weeks
- Month-long ban on non-residents and transit visitors entering Taiwan with exceptions for humanitarian cases
Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said the new local cases included 158 from Taipei City and 148 from neighbouring New Taipei, with the patients ranging in age from five years to 90.
“All residents are urged to strictly follow the anti-Covid-19 rules and cut down their activities as much as possible,” Chen said in Taipei.
The shutdown until May 28 will include junior and senior high schools, primary schools, kindergartens, nurseries and cram schools.
To reduce the load on medical personnel, the self-ruled island will ban non-residents entering Taiwan from May 19 to June 18.
“No transit visitors are allowed in this period either,” Chen said, adding the island needed to concentrate its medical resources to deal with the spike in locally transmitted cases.
But there would be exceptions on humanitarian grounds, he said.
Taiwan expects to roll out locally made Covid-19 vaccines by end of July
On whether Taiwan would introduce a full lockdown, Chen said the government had no plans to do this yet because it must take into account the impact on economy.
“We hope to keep the damage as minimal as possible,” he said. Chen has said an island-wide lockdown would only be introduced when there were more than 100 new cases with unknown sources for seven days in a row.
Taipei and New Taipei City have raised their alert levels for the first time to tier three in the four-tier system, restricting gatherings to five people indoors and 10 outdoors but stopping short of a lockdown.
Businesses have been told to adopt flexible arrangements such as remote working, while social distancing must be maintained in restaurants.
Taiwan’s 206 new local cases on Sunday came after 180 the previous day, bringing to 719 the number of new cases in just three days, prompting the authorities to put Taipei and New Taipei into a soft lockdown, limiting the size of indoor and outdoor gatherings and shutting most recreational facilities and businesses.
Bars, nightclubs, karaoke parlours and other recreational centres were shut and religious services in temples, churches and mosques across the island were suspended.
The usually crowded scenes in the busy Taipei and New Taipei areas were deserted as residents home.
