Taipei, Apr 26 (IANS): Taiwan plans to put Covid-19 in the same category of notifiable communicable diseases as influenza from May 1, the local disease monitoring agency said.

Covid-19 is currently a category-five notifiable communicable disease, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a press release issued by the agency.

The disease monitoring agency was founded in January 2020 to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak, and it will be dissolved accordingly, the statement said.

The island's health department will establish a Covid-19 coordination and expert consultation mechanism to handle the development of the epidemic in the future, the statement said.

As of March 20, Taiwan has reported more than 10.18 million Covid-19 cases and 19,404 deaths since its first case was announced on January 21, 2020.

The island has gradually lifted restrictive measures related to Covid-19 over the past few months. Since April 17 people have no longer been required to wear masks to board public transport.