TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — If current COVID-19 trends do not change, the compulsory wearing of masks outside will end in early December, Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) chief Victor Wang (王必勝) said Wednesday (Nov. 23).

The daily number of local COVID infections has been falling, with Wednesday’s total of 17,841 amounting to a decline of 21% from the same day last week.

Appearing on a radio show Wednesday, Wang said that if the trend continued, the mask mandate would end for people outside in early December, Radio Taiwan International (RTI) reported.

The situation at that time would form the basis for deciding when a second stage would start, with only specific locations such as hospitals, public transportation and crowded indoor events still requiring the wearing of masks. Because winter weather is likely to bring more infections and ailments, the beginning of the second stage might not happen before the end of the year, the report said.

In addition to the decline of the pandemic, the CECC also needed to consider the capability of the health system to respond to a possible rebound of infections once the mask mandate was lifted, Wang said. He also said the scale of other respiratory infections had to be taken into account before Taiwan could end the mandate.

However, the CECC chief warned that even if the mandate was ended, the wearing of masks would still be compulsory at popular mass events such as New Year parties and fireworks.