How Taiwan beat Covid

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From CNBC

Taiwan, which has been prepared for a pandemic since SARS, has stood out for its effective response to Covid-19

When Catherine Chou arrived in Taipei after flying from Los Angeles, authorities told her she would need to quarantine for two weeks. For Chou, a citizen, that meant booking herself into a hotel at her own expense, although subsidies are available and the government has paid stipends for some stays.

When she first arrived, she got a welcome package including dish soap, nail clippers and laundry detergent. Food was delivered to her doorstep. Several times a day, a representative of the local district’s office phoned her to check in and thank her for doing her part.

She’s now almost wrapped up her hotel room stay. Once she’s officially cleared of Covid-19, she’ll be free to go. After living in the U.S., which is still partially closed in various states, she’s looking forward to simple pleasures like visiting her family at home or sitting in a coffee shop with a good book. Taiwan allowed many of its restaurants and bars to reopen in May.

“We have this phrase in Taiwan that roughly translates to, ‘This is your country, and it’s up to you to save it,’” she said. “I’m really glad that they’re taking this quarantine seriously.” 

As of June 22, some business travelers from countries deemed low-risk (the U.S. is not among them) have been exempt from the stringent quarantine. That marks a change in policy from late January, when Taiwan ramped up travel restrictions and set up a home quarantine system using geofencing technology. That helped limit the spread of Covid-19, and Taiwan now has one of the lowest coronavirus death counts in the world. Moreover, visitors who wish to remain on tourist visas have been allowed to without needing to do a visa run every 90 days, said Erin Hale, a journalist based in Taipei. 

“Taiwan is close to China and could have been a total disaster,” said Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, author of a new book about the best health care systems around the world. “So I see their lack of cases as a truly amazing result.”

A clear plan and no exceptions

“Taiwan’s population is more than 23 million people — and they have 451 cases with only seven deaths,” said Tsung-Mei Cheng, a health policy research analyst at Princeton University. “That shows how successful they have been at both prevention and control.” 

Cheng said the key lesson for the rest of the world is that leadership matters. She noted that Taiwan’s government had a strong plan — one that had been in place since the SARS scare of 2003 — for managing a pandemic. And there were no exceptions to the rules. “They have professionals running the show,” she said. “These are people who have trained for years for this.”

Taiwan has been excluded from the World Health Organization because China claims Taiwan as its province with no right to its own diplomatic representation on the global stage and in international organizations. As a result, health officials say they were left out of receiving firsthand information on the coronavirus outbreak.

William Hsiao, emeritus professor of economics in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, praised Taiwan for its effective early action, noting that health officials had developed a careful advance warning system for diseases around the world. If Taiwan had been a member of the WHO, he said, it might have been able to share its precautions with the organization and help other countries more easily. 

But it was still able to move forward with a concrete and effective plan of its own.

“There was easy access to almost free and rapid testing centers,” said Han Jin, founder of a start-up in Taiwan called LucidPix. “At every building, including restaurants, gyms and offices, they check your temperature — and you cannot enter without face masks.” 

There’s also enforcement for those who don’t follow the rules. There are huge fines if people are caught not wearing masks in designated areas, such as the subway, and for breaking quarantine.

Social pressure also plays a part. Jin said that it’s become part of the culture in Taiwan to name and shame those who are not wearing masks in the subway or are breaking quarantine early. Those who do so might see their face pop up on a social media app. 

Continues with photos

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/15/how-taiwan-beat-the-coronavirus.html

[PeterRS]

Seems that Vietnam put similar measures into effect as soon as they detected the first patient. Is that country the only one in the world to have had no deaths? And only 370 or so infections. I believe it also suffered badly with the SARS epidemic and similarly set up a department specifically to manage future epidemics and pandemics.

https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/how-did-vietnam-become-biggest-nation-without-coronavirus-deaths

Taiwan has had few cases, no lock down, no closing of restaurants, cafes and bars. All a result of immediate government orders to wear masks, wash/sanitise hands, contact trace, take care that you might never infect others - and quarantine for visitors. There is a lesson here that the worlds top nations should have learned - and didnt. The price being paid for that negligence will be felt for years to come.