TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Friday (March 3) announced 13,532 local COVID cases, a 3% increase from the same day last week.
The center also reported 281 imported cases and 62 deaths.
The CECC said, despite the increase from last week, the number of confirmed cases is lower than expected following the country's four-day national holiday ending Tuesday (Feb. 28). The center had originally expected the daily cases to be near 20,000.
At Thursday's press briefing, CECC head Victor Wang (王必勝) said as the pandemic is easing, the government is planning to ease restrictions in three phases: Exempting mild COVID cases from reporting and quarantine in March, loosening requirements in medical institutions in April, and downgrading the classification of COVID from a Category 5 communicable disease to a Category 4 in May — when the task-oriented center would be disbanded.
