TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — With fears of a resurgence of the Wuhan coronavirus and its latest mutant strain from the UK reaching a fever pitch, multiple cities and counties across Taiwan are moving their New Year's Eve celebrations fully online, imposing strict crowd limits, postponing them, or ending them early.

On Wednesday (Dec. 30), Taoyuan City, Tainan City, Chiayi City, Kaohsiung City, Taichung City, and Keelung City announced that they will cancel the in-person viewing of their New Year's Eve activities. Instead, they are encouraging the public to stay home and watch the festivities via livestream.

That same day, Pingtung County announced that its New Year's Eve party has been postponed. On New Year's Eve, Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) announced that the crowd at Taipei City Hall Plaza's New Year's Eve countdown will be limited to 40,000 people.

The 2020 New Taipei City Christmasland ended Thursday at 12 a.m., four days ahead of its originally planned end date of Jan. 3. Earlier in the week, on Monday (Dec. 28), the New Taipei City Government announced that it is postponing its New Year's Eve fireworks display indefinitely.