COVID-19: Taiwan imposes fresh restrictions as coronavirus infections reach all-time high

After acquiring praises for successfully handling the COVID-19 pandemic when it had begun spreading to other parts of the world, Taiwan had to impose fresh restrictions in its capital city on May 15 as it is battling the worst outbreak of the novel coronavirus since last year. As per reports, the authorities raised the alert level for Tapei, the capital of the self-ruled democratic island, along with the surrounding areas of New Tapei City. The level 3 alert, imposed on the Taiwanese capital reportedly will stay in place for at least two weeks and it requires people to wear a mask outdoors and also limits the indoor gatherings to five people and outdoor gatherings to 10 people.

The new restrictions in Taiwan came as the authorities registered at least 180 new domestic cases of COVID-19 which was a drastic spike from 29 coronavirus infections recorded a day before. Most of the new cases were confirmed in Tapei and New Tapei and the value is far greater than the total of 164 cases previously confirmed for the entire COVID-19 pandemic period in the country. The restrictions also come in the backdrop of the region recording cases in single digits to gradually rising up to 180 which was announced on Saturday.

“The epidemic is gaining intensity,” Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said while also acknowledging that more COVID-19 cases are being identified as authorities check through the hot zones. Movie theatres, museums, indoor swimming pools and amusement parks have also been ordered to shut down along with community colleges and senior citizen activity centres. 

Taiwan kept COVID-19 largely at bay

The self-governing island with nearly 24 million people off China’s coast was hailed for keeping the pandemic largely at bay even though it originated from its neighbour. Taiwan has logged in 1,475 cases of COVID-19 and mostly infected people had travelled from foreign nations and has recorded 12 deaths. However, in the past week, the total number of locally spread coronavirus infections have tripled past week to 344 from under just 100 as of last weekend.

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