At a time when many countries around the world are witnessing a fresh spike in COVID-19 cases, Taiwan has set a record by not reporting any locally transmitted coronavirus cases in 200 days.
Taiwan holds the world’s best virus record by far and reached the new landmark on Thursday, especially at a time the virus explodes anew in Europe and the U.S.
Taiwan’s last local case came on April 12 and there has been no second wave. What did this island with 23 million people do right?
Taiwan has reported only 553 confirmed coronavirus cases and seven deaths. According to experts closing borders and tightly regulating travel have played a major role in their success in controlling the virus.
Some of the other factors that worked in Taiwan’s favour were rigorous contact tracing, technology enforced quarantine and wide-spread mask wearing. In simple words, Taiwan followed the protocols and ensured strict enforcement of all rules that prescribed by experts to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Apart from that, the painful lessons of past epidemic paved the way of Taiwan’s success in fighting covid. It began building an emergency-response network for containing infectious diseases after its experience with SARS in 2003, when hundreds became ill and at least 73 died, for the world’s third-highest infection rate. Taiwan later experienced pandemics like bird flu and influenza H1N1. As a result, its residents are acutely aware of disease-fighting habits like hand-washing and mask wearing.
As a result of the careful planning and efficient strategies in controlling the infection, Taiwan will be among the few economies to grow this year, with the government in August predicted that the gross domestic product will expand 1.56% in 2020.
Still, Taiwan isn’t out of the woods yet as it 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, like Singapore and Japan, then had spikes in cases. However it is safe to say that the country is well-prepared to fight any pandemic.
