Taiwan has reported fewer than 200 local cases for the third day in a row. The daily case count came in at 132 on Tuesday, while COVID deaths fell to the single digits for the first time since the end of May. Health minister Chen Shih-chung says the numbers are moving in “a better direction,” but that it’s still not the time to relax and take risks.

There were 132 new local cases on Tuesday. They were mainly distributed in Northern Taiwan, with 65 in New Taipei and 26 in Taipei. Miaoli and Taoyuan had 18 and 12 cases, respectively, with a handful of cases scattered elsewhere. For three days in a row now, there have been fewer than 200 COVID cases.

In addition, eight people were reported dead from COVID, taking the death count down to single digits for the first time since the end of May. The overall mortality rate is at about 3.7%.

Chen Shih-chung
Health minister
Overall there is a slight decline in the trend. But we don’t have a sense of the next few days, and we can’t be sure of whether the case count situation will continue. The overall trend is moving in a better direction, but we still can’t allow ourselves to relax.

Taiwan isn’t out of the woods, he said, noting that migrant workers in Miaoli were still being tested. The results could send the case count shooting up.

The CECC is testing at six electronics factories in Miaoli’s Zhunan Township. Some 1,400 migrant workers are to be tested by Wednesday before they are released from home isolation. The CECC expects 10 to 15% of the group to test positive, or about 150 to 200 people. It said that the migrant workers are currently at a centralized quarantine facility, where they pose little infection risk to the community.

Asked if he might downgrade Level 3 COVID alert after June 28, the CECC chief said that would be a call made by the pandemic.

Chen Shih-chung
Health minister
The pandemic changes – it is changing all the time. So we will monitor the situation at all times. Of course, we’re not ruling out any possibility. And of course, we will convene our experts to discuss this together.

The CECC is leaning toward a gradual deescalation of the Level 3 alert, lifting it region by region rather than all at once. It plans to have its epidemic monitoring station assess the possibility.