TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) is not yet ready to lift Level 3 restrictions but is looking at making adjustments to regulations on certain industries and the creation of zones for hot spots.

Since May 19, Taiwan has been under Level 3 epidemic control restrictions, which have been extended to July 12. When posed the question as to whether the alert level will be lowered given the steady decrease in cases, CECC head Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) on Monday afternoon (July 5) said the center is not yet ready to lift most restrictions.

On Monday morning, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said that because there are still sporadic cluster infections in some counties and cities, the conditions are not yet right to lower the alert level. However, Su indicated that given that the daily number of cases has dropped significantly, there is room for "reasonable adjustments" of epidemic control measures in certain industries.

Su expressed his hope that the CECC will formulate new epidemic control standards and provide a public report on them this week. During the CECC press conference that afternoon, Chen said that although the center has not yet decided to lower the Level 3 alert, there can still be adjustments made to control measures in specific industries.

Chen reiterated that all of Taiwan is closely linked together and the overall direction of epidemic prevention measures must be based on national consensus, and not on a city or county level. He said that although counties and cities have sporadic cluster infections, what is most important is the overall situation with the epidemic.

He said that based on the outbreak situation, hot spots will be delineated according to the results of epidemiological investigations. He said that the "Level 3 alert will be dived into zones, especially hot spots where epidemic prevention efforts will be expanded.