TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced on Monday (Jan. 16) that it will likely discontinue the indoor mask mandate after the end of the Lunar New Year holiday.

Head of the CECC Victor Wang (王必勝) said that local COVID cases in the second week of January decreased by 15.7% compared to the first week, indicating that the peak of the third wave had passed.

News broke on Saturday (Jan. 14) that Japan is considering downgrading COVID from the current Class 2 to a Class 5 disease and ending its indoor mask mandate as early as this spring.

When asked by the media on Monday whether Taiwan would also follow suit, Wang said that downgrading the rating for COVID and discontinuing the mask regulations are two different things.

Wang said that the center will begin to enter discussions on whether to change COVID from a Category 5 communicable disease to a Category 4 after the Lunar New Year holiday is over and that loosening mask regulations will take place first. According to Wang, the scrapping of the indoor mask requirements as part of the second stage has been discussed over the past few days, and it is hoped that the new, loosened phase can be implemented after the end of the Lunar New Year holiday.

Wang said that as long as the situation with the domestic outbreak and pandemic are both stable, the indoor mask mandate will be terminated.

The first stage, which was announced in December, ended the requirement of wearing masks outdoors but retained the rule that masks should be worn at all times in public indoor venues. Wang previously stated that the second stage would discontinue the indoor mask mandate, with the exception of specific locations, such as hospitals, long-term care institutions, and "confined modes of public transportation."

The third stage will replace the wearing of masks from being "mandatory" to "recommended."