[ad_1]
TAIPEI (BLOOMBERG) – While many places around the world are hitting new highs in coronavirus cases, Taiwan has achieved a different kind of record: 200 days without a case of local transmission.
Taiwan has the best virus record in the world by far and reached the new milestone on Thursday (October 29), even as the pathogen breaks out again in Europe and the United States.
The last local case in Taiwan occurred on April 12; there has been no second wave.
What did this island with 23 million inhabitants do well? It has had 550 confirmed cases, with only seven deaths.
Experts say closing borders early and strictly regulating travel has gone a long way toward fighting the virus. Other factors include rigorous contact tracing, technology-imposed quarantine, and the use of universal masks.
Also, Taiwan’s deadly experience with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has scared people into obeying.
“Taiwan is the only major country that has so far been able to keep community transmission of Covid eliminated,” said Dr. Peter Collignon, infectious disease physician and professor at the Australian National University School of Medicine.
Taiwan “probably had the best performance in the world,” he said, and is “even more impressive” for an economy with a population roughly the same size as Australia’s, with many people living close to each other in apartments.
Taiwan will be one of the few economies to grow this year, and the government forecast in August that gross domestic product will expand 1.56 percent in 2020.
Still, Taiwan is not out of the woods just yet, having recorded 20 imported cases in the past two weeks, mostly from Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines and Indonesia.
And others that fought the virus well initially, such as Singapore and Japan, later had spikes in cases.
What countries with rising infections can take away from Taiwan’s experience is that nothing works without the contact tracking down those who have tested positive and then quarantining them, said Dr. Chen Chien-jen, former vice president. and an epidemiologist from Taiwan, in an interview.
Also, since it’s not easy to quarantine people, Taiwan has taken steps to provide food and grocery delivery and even some friendly contact via Line Bot, a texting and chatting robot.
There is also a punishment: Those who break the quarantine face fines of up to NT $ 1 million (S $ 47,700).
Here’s how Taiwan has achieved this milestone:
Border control
Taiwan closed off all non-residents shortly after the pandemic broke out in January and has maintained strict control over its borders ever since.
“Taiwan’s continued success is due to the strict enforcement of border control,” says Dr. Jason Wang, director of the Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention at Stanford University.
That includes symptom-based surveillance before travelers board flights and digital billboard tracking via cellular signals to ensure compliance with a 14-day quarantine, he said.
Masks, distribution
The decision to stock and centrally distribute face masks played a key role in Taiwan’s success.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the government stockpiled all domestically produced face masks and banned their export.
In four months, the companies increased production from 2 million to 20 million units per day, allowing the island to ration masks to residents on a regular basis.
Contact tracking, quarantine
Taiwan has world-class contact tracing: on average, it links 20 to 30 contacts to each confirmed case.
In extreme situations, such as that of a Taipei City hostess club worker who contracted the virus, the government traced up to 150 contacts.
Then all contacts must undergo a 14-day home quarantine, even if they test negative.
So far, around 340,000 people have been under home quarantine, and fewer than 1,000 have been fined for violating it.
That means 99.7 percent have complied, according to Dr. Chen.
“We sacrificed 14 days of 340,000 people in exchange for the normal life of 23 million people,” he said.
Sars experience
The painful lessons of past epidemics paved the way for Taiwan’s success in fighting Covid-19.
He began building an emergency response network to contain infectious diseases after his experience with Sars in 2003, when hundreds became ill and at least 73 died, representing the third highest infection rate in the world.
Later, Taiwan experienced pandemics such as bird flu and H1N1 influenza.
As a result, its residents are well aware of disease-fighting habits such as washing hands and wearing masks.
[ad_2]
