Taiwan Govt: How 200 days went by without a case spreading domestically

Taiwan never has to make tough locks. It did not seek strict restrictions on civil liberties as on the mainland.

Taiwan confirmed the first report of the Corona virus novel on January 21, after which Wuhan residents were banned from going to the island. All travelers from China, Hong Kong and Macau must be screened.

All of this happened before Wuhan was locked up on January 23rd. By March, Taiwan had banned all foreigners from entering the island, except for ambassadors, residents and holders of special entry visas.

But Taiwan has advantages that its peers in the West do not.

One is geography – Taiwan is an island, so it is easy for authorities to control entry and exit through its borders.

Taiwan also had experience on its side. In an interview last month, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said Taiwan had worked to develop its ability to cope with an epidemic since it was hit by a severe respiratory illness (SARS) in 2003.

“So, when we heard that there were some secret pneumonia cases in China, the patients were treated in solitary confinement and we knew it was something similar,” he said.

Authorities implemented the island’s Central Epidemic Command Center, which was set up next to SARS, to coordinate between various ministries. The government increased production of masks and protective equipment to ensure that PPE had a stable supply.

Sen Xien-jen, a former vice president of Taiwan who is an epidemiologist by training, said locks are not ideal. Sen also said that mass testing programs carried out on China’s mainland, where millions of people would be screened when a few cases were detected, were unnecessary.

“Very careful communication tracking and the most severe isolation of close contacts is the best way to have Govit-19,” he said.