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On the streets of the island’s capital, Taipei, pedestrians seem more concerned with staying out of the hot midday sun than maintaining any semblance of social distancing. Long lines stretch along the sidewalks, as people crowd into popular restaurants at lunchtime. And in the nearby parks, large groups of young people exercise and practice dance routines.
In fact, there are few to no visible signs that We are in 2020 and the world is in the grip of a terrible pandemic.
And in Taiwan as a whole, an island with a population of about 23 million people, there have been around 500 confirmed cases and just 7 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
And that’s despite being located just 130 kilometers (81 miles) from China, the country where the virus was first detected.
The secret of success
One of the main reasons for Taiwan’s success in containing the virus is speed.
The island’s leaders were quick to act like Rumors spread online of an unidentified virus in the Chinese city of Wuhan and unconfirmed reports of patients who had to isolate themselves.
Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu told CNN the deadly The 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) had taught them a lot. “At that time Taiwan was hit hard, and then we started to build our capacity to deal with a pandemic like this,” Wu said.
“So when we heard that there were some secret cases of pneumonia in China where patients were treated in isolation, we knew it was something similar.”
Even before Beijing publicly acknowledged the severity of the virus, Wu said Taiwanese health officials began screening passengers arriving from Wuhan and additional early travel restrictions were put in place.
While much of the world awaited more information, Taiwan activated its Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), which one coordinates different ministries in case of emergency, and the army was hired to boost the production of masks and PPE.
Those initial and early responses to the outbreak in China, and the willingness to take action, were critical to preventing the spread of the virus in Taiwan, potentially saving thousands of lives.
Direct flights from Wuhan, China have been monitored since December 31, 2019, and all passengers underwent a health exam.
The Taiwan Center for Disease Control announced on January 20 that it had dispatched two experts to Wuhan to try “to obtain more complete information on the outbreak.”
A day later, Taiwan confirmed its first reported case of the new coronavirus. Wuhan residents were barred from entering and all passengers from China, Hong Kong and Macau were screened.
All of this happened before Wuhan went into lockdown on January 23. And in March, Taiwan banned all foreign nations from entering the island, apart from diplomats, those on resident visas with special entry visas.
Dr. James Wang, director of the Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention at Stanford University, said that places like Taiwan “tend to be conservative, so when it was unclear how it spread, they said we’re going to wear a mask anyway and they got it right. “
Another key to success, according to Foreign Minister Wu and outside experts: Be honest about the dangers.
Wu said they were giving “daily reports, every day and sometimes twice a day to inform the population about what was happening in a very transparent way and people have just developed a confidence in the government that deals with of this matter. “
This trust, according to Wu, helped ensure that masks were worn, hands were washed and quarantines were respected.
‘Life here is so surreal’
Taiwan’s early response means that everyday life on the island is now very different from many places in the world where leaders were not quick to act.
Sil Chen moved to New York from his native Taiwan 16 years ago to establish a psychotherapy practice.
She believes she contracted the virus in mid-March from a client who was coughing during a session. “At that time, people didn’t take this very seriously,” Chen said.
Back then, it was also difficult to get tested in the US, so she stayed in her apartment for five weeks to avoid spreading the virus. An antibody test two months later confirmed his infection.
“I think it was pretty mild compared to the other people I knew, but I coughed for two months … and didn’t get the smell back for a month,” Chen said.
Chen returned to Taipei in mid-July to visit his grandmother, who has lung cancer. After a 14-day quarantine, she took her 99-year-old grandmother out for a walk. “We were having dinner at a restaurant,” he said, “doing group yoga with people and I was like, wow, this is so surreal, it wouldn’t have been possible for me to take my grandmother to a public space like that anywhere else. “. in the world almost “.
From the science of closure to the science of reopening
Dr. Wang and his Stanford associates have written about the success of the Taiwan model to curb the virus, but he would like the island to go one step further.
“Taiwan has been really good at the science of closure … but what is the new science of reopening that could be a good model for the world?” said Wang.
Taiwan introduced a shorter quarantine period for business visitors in June from countries it considers low or medium risk. This requires visitors to undergo a pre-boarding test to show they are negative within 72 hours of the flight, then a test on day five of quarantine, after which they are allowed to come out of isolation and self-check during the next two weeks.
“They are already doing what I suggest for business travelers, special visas, so what’s the logic in not doing it for everyone?” I ask.
Wang said the Taiwanese government is currently considering an international travel study with Stanford to test shorter quarantine periods with more frequent testing. He said travel corridors are a vital way to revive economies around the world and he wants to study travelers arriving in Taiwan to verify the efficiency and practicalities of shorter quarantines.
As Wang noted, “at one point, we still need to reopen the world and even with the vaccine, it is not 100% protected.”
