Speaking at the weekly Cabinet meeting after a briefing by the Ministry of Health and Welfare on the COVID-19 outbreak and Taiwan's response, Premier Su Tseng-chang on Thursday noted that four consecutive days have passed without a single new confirmed case, and 17 days without any new locally transmitted cases. Thanks to the collective efforts of the entire nation, it appears that Taiwan has succeeded in bringing the first wave of the outbreak under control. Now that the situation has stabilized, he said, it is time for Taiwan to enter a new era of personal health management.
The positive outlook on the coronavirus situation owes much to the dynamism and initiative of the people of Taiwan and their ready compliance with the government's efforts to fight the disease, Premier Su said. With no need to escalate controls, now is the moment to begin rolling back restrictions on the broader community and shift the focus to the individual. In this new era of personal health management, people will have more freedom to move about, but will have to practice disease prevention measures as a normal part of life.
Premier Su also praised the nobility of the Taiwanese people for donating their unused quotas of surgical masks to nations in need, even at a time when the supply remains tight in Taiwan. In response to a goodwill campaign launched by the Central Epidemic Command Center, more than 350,000 people have generously agreed to donate over 3 million masks to countries around the world.
At the same meeting, the premier also received a joint report by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) and Ministry of the Interior on transportation and other measures aimed at reducing transmission risks for the Labor Day weekend coming up Friday. During the three-day holiday, the general public can use the MOTC's "Freeway 1968" app to check crowd levels and alerts at popular attractions so they can plan ahead as appropriate, the premier said.