Counting down to the New Year is something a lot of people are anticipating, and all six of Taiwan’s special municipalities have made plans for New Year’s Eve galas. But now that the new omicron variant has entered the picture, it’s hard to say whether things will go as planned a month from now. Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je says although his city has contingency measures in place, the New Year’s Eve celebrations may still be called off as short as three days prior to the event. Let’s hear from the mayor himself:

Ko Wen-je
Mayor of Taipei
Don’t ask me what will happen a month from now. A large-scale event like this may be cancelled due to the pandemic, and we have solutions for that.

Voice of Liu Yi-ting
Taipei DOIT Commissioner,
If the central government announces restrictions on the number of participants in large-scale events, we will follow the central government’s instructions. The Taipei City Government also has experience in dealing with large numbers of domestic cases in a week, so if that were to happen again, we would adjust the event’s program accordingly.

Chen Chi-mai
Mayor of Kaohsiung
Epidemic prevention requires closely following the standard operating procedure and the kind of actions to take in a given situation. We should be well-prepared. With zero new local infections in the last ten-plus days, our communities are safe. So what we should be doing now is safeguarding our borders. As long as we keep the virus from entering our borders, we won’t have to worry.

As the omicron variant keeps the city mayors on their toes, these leaders are reminding the public not to panic.