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The first locally transmitted Covid-19 case in more than eight months was reported in Taiwan, ending what was the longest period in the world without a domestic infection and providing a reminder of the virus’s ability to overcome even the toughest efforts. successful to contain it.
A 30-year-old woman was confirmed to have contracted Covid-19 in Taiwan, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said at a briefing in Taipei on Tuesday. While it has seen cases in travelers arriving from abroad, the last Taiwan infection within the community was on April 12.
The woman came into repeated contact between December 7 and 12 with a New Zealand pilot who had caught Covid-19 in the United States before traveling to Taiwan, according to Chen. The government will fine the Eva Airways Corp. pilot up to NT $ 300,000 ($ 10,000) for failing to report details of his contacts and close steps.
Health officials have identified 167 other people the most recent case came into contact with before they isolated her, the Centers for Disease Control said in a statement. The patient is an employee of a subsidiary of Quanta Computer Inc., which said it has stepped up virus control measures and asked the employee’s close contacts to self-quarantine at home.
Police tracked down the latest case after investigating all the people the pilot came into contact with before testing positive. Two other confirmed cases contracted the virus from the pilot while working with him on a flight from the United States to Taiwan on December 15. Eva Airways shares fell 6.7%, the most since March, while Taiwan’s benchmark stock index lost 1.4% on Tuesday.
Success story
The resurgence of a local outbreak threatens to derail one of the most prominent success stories in the global fight against the pandemic. Taiwan currently ranks second in BloombergCovid Resilience Ranking, a measure of the best places to be in the Covid-19 era.
Taiwan has managed to keep its total number of cases at 770, with just seven deaths, through a combination of restricting travel to the island at the beginning of the outbreak and implementing a strict quarantine and contact tracing strategy.
However, many regions that showed initial success in fighting the virus, from Thailand to South Korea, are now facing their worst outbreaks as cases increase around the world with the onset of winter.
“Today’s pandemic outside the borders of Taiwan is worse than ever,” said Raina MacIntyre, professor of global biosecurity at the University of New South Wales. For places like Taiwan that have prevented transmission, “the international border is the weak link that can allow the infection to enter.”
The continued spread of the coronavirus around the world has meant that Taiwanese authorities have had to remain on guard. Since the last case of national transmission in April, more than 300 cases have been brought in by people returning from abroad.
Read more about Taiwan’s approach to mitigating the virus here.
The absence of the virus has allowed life to continue as usual on Taiwan, an island about 80 miles off the southeast coast of China. Offices, schools and businesses have largely remained open as the government avoided implementing a closure, although wearing masks is still recommended. Taiwan’s successful handling of the outbreak meant it sidestepped the economic damage seen elsewhere, placing it among the few places that are still predicting growth this year.
The domestic travel industry has seen something of a boom, as Taiwan’s 24 million people are unable to travel abroad for vacations due to restrictions. Meanwhile, the external demand for Taiwan’s technology: It is the home of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., a iPhone manufacturer and a fringe of chip makers, remains strong as people buy laptops and tablets to work and study from home.
The economy is likely to expand about 2.3% this year, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg, in stark contrast to most of the world’s other developed economies that are expected to slide into recession.
New waves
Highly contagious and manifesting in some with few or no symptoms, the virus has resurfaced in several places where it was thought to have been largely eliminated.
Thailand, the first country to register a Covid-19 case outside of China, had not reported more than 100 infections in any day since early April, until a new outbreak was found on December 17. The Southeast Asian nation reported 427 new cases. on Tuesday, when a group in a province outside of Bangkok spread out around workers at seafood processing plants.
Covid is spreading in inexplicable ways, dimming hope for containment
South Korea has repeatedly prevented the coronavirus from spreading uncontrollably, applying its elite test-and-trace practices that have become a global model for handling the pandemic. Now that country is being tested, as infections topped 1,000 for five consecutive days through Sunday.
“The key lesson is that unless this problem is addressed globally, person-to-person transmission will always be likely,” he said. Nicholas thomas, Associate Professor of Health Security at Hong Kong City University. “The danger is that as cases decline and countries seek to open their borders, either widely or in the form of travel bubbles, places that were previously disease-free will again be exposed.”
