Premier Su Tseng-chang says that while there are no plans yet to lift current COVID-19 restrictions, officials can make adjustments for different industries. His comments came Monday morning at a pandemic prevention meeting.
Level 3 restrictions are in place at least until July 12. But with Taiwan’s daily COVID-19 cases dipping below 30 for the first time in nearly two months, Su has ordered pandemic prevention officials to draw up new guidelines.
The premier says that Taiwan is small enough to traverse in a day, so restrictions must be unified across the country. However, he says there can be exceptions if there is a need to isolate a hotspot.
Su called on the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) to come up with a set of principles for adjusting industry guidelines. He says each government ministry will then apply those guidelines to the industries under its jurisdiction.
Premier Su says that officials could announce new guidelines at a press conference as early as this week, in order to give industries enough time to roll out the changes. But those changes would only go into effect if authorities are confident that the outbreak is under control.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung says officials have not yet decided to lift Level 3 restrictions on July 12. He echoed the premier’s comments, saying that current plans will ease restrictions by industry, rather than by city or county.