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.

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.

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.

The country has reported 868 cases, the majority of which were imported, including seven deaths, with 102 in hospital being treated.  “This is a tough decision, but pandemic-prevention is our top priority,” Transportation Minister Lin Chia-lung told reporters.

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.

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