The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) has mapped out a contingency plan should the COVID-19 outbreak intensify in Taiwan. The CECC unveiled the plan Monday, the same day New Taipei City held a simulation of a lockdown.
There are three stages outlined in the plan: transition, warning and control, in that order. CECC spokesman Chuang Jen-hsiang said Taiwan is currently in the beginning of the first stage, the transitional stage. That means it has sporadic community transmissions without clear sources of infection. Controls are in place in public spaces though these are mostly advisory controls.
The next stage is the warning stage. That stage would mean there are three separate clusters of community infections in one week, or more than 10 cases of domestic origin with unclear sources of infection in one day. The government would take stringent measures such as speedy testing for COVID-19, restrictions of movement and closing public spaces.
A lockdown would occur in the control stage. In that stage, there would be a rapid increase in domestic cases, the chains of infections of most cases would not be traceable, and there would not be enough time to do testing.