Taiwan cancels major festival as domestic COVID-19 cases rise

    1. The Taiwan Lantern Festival, an annual celebration to mark the end of the upcoming Chinese New Year in mid-February, will be cancelled this year because of COVID-19, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said, citing the recent local infection cases.
    2. “This is a tough decision, but pandemic-prevention is our top priority,” Transportation Minister Lin Chia-lung told reporters.
    3. The festival, which features oversized lanterns and fireworks displays, attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year and has become a major selling point for the government to attract tourists from overseas.
    4. All four cases are related to the Taoyuan hospital outbreak and Taiwan’s health ministry is planning to move more than 200 patients out of the hospital into isolation wards.
    5. “We strongly recommend that large-scale events be cancelled,” said Health Minister Chen Shih-chung. “The situation is under our control at the moment because the cases can be clearly traced.”

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