While countries around the world continue to grapple with rising coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, Taiwan has reached a record of more than 200 days without any domestically transmitted infection of the virus.
Taiwan’s Centre for Disease Control, which recorded its last local case on April 12, cited the country’s milestone and thanked the public for playing a role, calling on people to continue to adhere to health protocols to sustain success.
How did Taiwan do it?
Taiwanese officials believed in science and acted early to stop the spread of COVID-19, brought in strict control measures, including two weeks of quarantine for anyone entering the island, and poured efforts and resources to ramp up testing and tracing.
Peter Collignon, an infectious disease physician, and professor at the Australian National University Medical School told Bloomberg that community transmission has been eliminated on the island of 23 million people.
Mr. Collignon said Taiwan probably had the best result around the world, praising the impressive response from an economy with a population of about the same size as Australia’s.
Checks on travelers arriving from China’s Wuhan, ground zero of the respiratory disease, were brought in as early as December 31 when Taiwanese health officials told the World Health Organization they were treating cases of viral pneumonia of unknown origin.
The country’s previous exposure to the Sars epidemic also paved the way for its success in fighting COVID-19. Preparations made were extensive and up to date, and Taiwan was assisted by having a good public health system.
Bloomberg said Taiwan is seen as among the few economies to grow this year, with Tawainese authorities in August forecasting that the gross domestic product will expand 1.56 percent this year.
