TAIPEI (TVBS News) — The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) delayed the announcement of an eventual lift of the indoor face mask mandates on Thursday (Feb. 2).
Despite previous announcements, the CECC backtracked, citing various concerns, including the nation's current medical capacity, the start of a new school year after the Lunar New Year holiday, and the recent surge of COVID-19 cases.
Health authorities reported 26,793 new COVID-19 cases and 74 COVID-19 deaths on the same day, marking the highest death count in 77 days.
Despite this, the CECC is optimistic that the classification of COVID-19 as a Category 5 infectious disease could be downgraded to Category 4 in May when the pandemic situation further stabilizes.
This would also mean the CECC would be disbanded after more than three years in their battle stations.
