<p class="bodytext">Taiwan on Tuesday cancelled a major festival during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday as the island reported four locally transmitted cases of Covid-19, the biggest daily rise in local infections in nearly 11 months.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Taiwan, which has kept the pandemic well under control thanks to early and effective prevention methods, has been unnerved by new domestic transmissions, first in December and now in a hospital in the northern city of Taoyuan.</p>.<p class="bodytext">It has reported 868 cases, the majority of which were imported, including seven deaths, with 102 in hospital being treated.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The Taiwan Lantern Festival, an annual celebration to mark the end of the upcoming Lunar 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.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"This is a tough decision, but pandemic-prevention is our top priority," Transportation Minister Lin Chia-lung told reporters.</p>.<p class="bodytext">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.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Lin Chih-Chien, mayor of the northern city of Hsinchu where the festival was to be held, said several technology companies there had asked the government to cancel the event, citing concerns of a local outbreak curtailing production at a technology hub that hosts firms including the world's largest chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd.</p>.<p class="bodytext">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.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"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."</p>
<p class="bodytext">Taiwan on Tuesday cancelled a major festival during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday as the island reported four locally transmitted cases of Covid-19, the biggest daily rise in local infections in nearly 11 months.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Taiwan, which has kept the pandemic well under control thanks to early and effective prevention methods, has been unnerved by new domestic transmissions, first in December and now in a hospital in the northern city of Taoyuan.</p>.<p class="bodytext">It has reported 868 cases, the majority of which were imported, including seven deaths, with 102 in hospital being treated.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The Taiwan Lantern Festival, an annual celebration to mark the end of the upcoming Lunar 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.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"This is a tough decision, but pandemic-prevention is our top priority," Transportation Minister Lin Chia-lung told reporters.</p>.<p class="bodytext">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.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Lin Chih-Chien, mayor of the northern city of Hsinchu where the festival was to be held, said several technology companies there had asked the government to cancel the event, citing concerns of a local outbreak curtailing production at a technology hub that hosts firms including the world's largest chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd.</p>.<p class="bodytext">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.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"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."</p>