With cases hovering around the same level, some are starting to ask if the current wave of COVID-19 has peaked. But some are wondering if Taiwan is moving too fast in easing restrictions and getting back to normal.
With daily cases appearing to stabilize, many are wondering if Taiwan’s COVID outbreak is hitting a peak.
Health minister Chen Shih-chung says the rate of spread seems to be going down in northern Taiwan, while in the rest of the country it’s still increasing.
Dr. Huang Li-min says that cases are only slowly falling in the north and rising in other parts of Taiwan. This means the country may not see a reduction in overall daily cases until the end of June.
Hsin Kuang Hospital director Hung Tzu-jen says he thinks daily cases will hover between 60,000 and 70,000 in the coming month.
Hung says cases may start to slowly fall after the Dragon Boat Festival later this week.
Authorities are also planning to ease border restrictions. Starting June 1, all inbound travelers will do saliva-based PCR tests and the quota of incoming travelers will be raised to 25,000 per week. Quarantine requirements may also be reduced soon.
Dr. Huang says the most important consideration around easing border restrictions is other variants. He says if a different variant begins spreading in Taiwan, it could cause cases to start rising again.
Doctors say that even if cases rise again due to new variants, the situation won’t be worse than the current outbreak. They say that even with the risks involved, easing restrictions is important to getting life back to normal.