Taiwan To Downgrade COVID-19 Classification, Disband Task Force

Taiwan said on Thursday it will downgrade its classification of COVID-19 on May 1 to a less severe category of communicable diseases, such as flu, and disband a task force established to deal with the virus in the early stage of the pandemic.

As the domestic coronavirus situation on the island has remained stable, with infections remaining low, COVID-19 will be designated as a Category 4 communicable disease next Monday instead of Category 5. Other infectious diseases covered by Category 5 include yellow fever and the Ebola virus.

The Central Epidemic Command Center, which was established on Jan. 20, 2020, will also be dissolved on Monday.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen thanked all CECC staff members, which held its last press conference on Thursday, as well as frontline workers for their hard work in overcoming various challenges during the pandemic.

Deputy Health Minister Victor Wang, who has headed the CECC since July last year, told reporters the center’s press conferences played a very important role in delivering COVID-19 information to the public in an open and transparent manner.

“It’s the people’s trust in us that makes them want to support our disease prevention strategies, getting us to where we are today,” Wang said. The CECC has held 960 press conferences since it was established.

The CECC’s tasks will be taken over by Taiwan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare.

The island, which reported its first COVID-19 case on Jan. 21, 2020, has seen more than 10.23 million cases and experienced over 19,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency.