Taiwan's health minister promised to resolve a logjam with reporting positive Covid-19 tests after abruptly raising case numbers, a move that prompted criticisms from opposition politicians and jokes online about questionable statistics.

Taiwan is dealing with a spike in cases after months of keeping the pandemic well under control, with restrictions in place across the island to limit gatherings.

On Saturday and Sunday, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung announced a total of 570 new cases whose positive tests had not been included in previous reports due to reporting delays following the surge in cases.

Chen said they were working to resolve the “traffic jam” problem by simplifying the reporting system and adding more machines that can perform quicker and more accurate tests.