As of 26 April 2020, Taiwan, which has a population of close to 24 million (the 17th most densely populated country in the world) only has 429 confirmed cases of Covid-19, with 281 recoveries and 6 deaths.
Taiwan’s relatively successful containment of the virus—despite its close proximity to China and the frequency of travel between China and Taiwan, and despite it being shut out of the World Health Organization—deserves to be emulated.
Recently, Taiwan donated 300,000 face masks to the Philippines, apart from the island nation’s pledge of 6 million masks to other countries to help them fight the coronavirus pandemic. Taiwan’s “mask diplomacy” campaign was launched on April 1 when it pledged to donate 10 million masks to European countries, the US and diplomatic allies.
But Taiwan has much more to offer to the rest of the world than just face mask donations, particularly its best practices against Covid-19.
This paper told the government in an editorial last January (Ok to be ‘OA’) that the time to be overzealous, extra-vigilant and to err on the side of caution was then, when our country still did not have any confirmed case of the Wuhan coronavirus (as it used to be called).
We called for travel lockdowns and physical distancing measures even then. We urged both the government and the private sector to stop sending their employees abroad, to relax their sick leave rules in order to encourage staff to stay home if they develop flu-like symptoms, to cancel large gatherings and try to lessen human traffic in crowded areas; in general, to learn from our previous experience with SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and the H1N1 influenza.
This is essentially what Taiwan did. The country learned valuable lessons from previous pandemics and outbreaks that enabled it to better prepare for Covid-19, and it was a lot readier when the virus from China reached its shores.
Taiwan started screening all passengers from Wuhan on Dec. 31, the same day it learned of the then-unknown virus in the Chinese city.
Its government set up the Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center in immediate response to the virus and also implemented a series of aggressive containment, quarantine and monitoring measures that have limited local transmission of Covid-19.
When there was a second wave of imported cases from travelers abroad, the country closed its borders to nonresidents.
The Taiwanese health care system is one of the best in the world. It is able to disperse patients to various hospitals, to avoid overloading and to deal with specific needs and facilities. The SARS experience inspired Taiwan to ensure its hospital network would be equipped to handle a future viral outbreak like Covid-19.
On April 2, Taiwan’s National Health Research Institute said it had developed a rapid testing kit that provided results in 10 to 15 minutes.
It is also worth noting that Taiwan’s healthy skepticism of whatever comes from the mouths of Beijing officials helped it immensely, as it looks like Taiwanese officials immediately assumed that human-to-human transmission of Covid-19 was already happening in December, even if China initially denied it and only confirmed it on 20 January.
Jason Wang, a Stanford Health Policy researcher, co-wrote an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association that contains a list of 124 actions Taiwan took to combat the outbreak that other countries can emulate.
New Zealand and Israel, for instance, have said they will use Taiwan’s response to influence their own.
In an article this paper published in April 16 (Teco disappointed by WHO leader’s ‘false accusations’ by Recto Mercene), the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (Teco) in the Philippines said: “The invaluable lessons learned from the 2003 SARS pandemic, has prompted Taiwan to very quickly take effective preventive and proactive response measures against Covid-19, including treatment, tracking, quarantine and mitigation. Thus, Taiwan created a widely recognized model that the international community hopes to learn from.”
“We hereby urge WHO to invite Taiwan to fully participate in all its meetings and mechanisms regarding the fight against Covid-19, and restore Taiwan’s observer status in the World Health Assembly,” Teco said, adding that Taiwan’s being granted full involvement in the WHO would allow the sharing of its successful experience with the world more effectively, and put an end to the pandemic as quickly as possible.
We cannot anymore replicate Taiwan’s preventive measures, it is too late now. But our country can still implement some of Taiwan’s other containment measures and we can benefit from the direct assistance it is offering, particularly in testing, diagnosing and treating Covid-19 patients, as well as through its provision of medical supplies, including personal protective equipment, for our health workers.
Former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Taiwan’s participation in WHO could have saved lives. We agree. Indeed, Taiwan can help and we should let Taiwan help.
Image credits: Jimbo Albano