Taiwan reported less than 20,000 local COVID infections on Thursday, a drop of 20% from the previous week. A health expert says that, though numbers are dropping, a new COVID wave could rise after the Lunar New Year, with the spread of highly infectious variants. Let’s hear from him.
Chen Hsiu-hsi
NTU College of Public Health
With Taiwanese coming back from the holidays, and with all the festive gatherings, there could be a new wave. If there is one, the peak could come in early March. Then the curve would slowly come back down again.
Lee Ping-ing
NTU Children’s Hospital
If a strong subvariant that has a high transmissibility emerges abroad, it will eventually make its way into Taiwan. It won’t necessarily clearly correlate with the Lunar New Year. Perhaps the number of infections goes up, but that won’t necessarily cause many severe infections or deaths.
NTU Children’s Hospital doctor, Lee Ping-ing, says that Taiwan already has a certain degree of herd immunity. He says that even if new variants find their way in, they will only result in smaller waves, adding that the government may still consider easing COVID rules. The CECC says it may announce a lifting of the indoor mask mandate as early as Jan. 31.
