While many countries around the world are hitting new highs with coronavirus cases, Taiwan has achieved a different kind of record: it has gone 200 days without a locally transmitted case.?
Taiwan holds the world¡¯s best virus record by far and reached the new landmark on Thursday. The novel coronavirus is on its second wave in Europe and the U.S. Taiwan¡¯s last local case came on April 12; there has been no second wave.?
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It has had 553 confirmed cases, with only seven deaths. Experts say closing borders early and tightly regulating travel have gone a long way toward fighting the virus. Other factors include rigorous contact tracing, technology-enforced quarantine and widespread mask wearing. Further, Taiwan¡¯s deadly experience with SARS has scared people into compliance.
¡°Taiwan is the only major country that has so far been able to keep community transmission of COVID eliminated,¡± said Peter Collignon, an infectious disease physician and professor at the Australian National University Medical School.?
Taiwan ¡°probably had the best result around the world,¡± he said, and it¡¯s ¡°even more impressive¡± for an economy with a population about the same size as Australia¡¯s, with many people living close to one another in apartments.
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What countries with surging infections can take away from Taiwan¡¯s experience is that nothing works without contact tracing those who have tested positive and then quarantining them, said Chen Chien-jen, Taiwan¡¯s former vice president and an epidemiologist, in an interview.?
Also, as it¡¯s not easy to make people stay in quarantine, Taiwan has taken steps to provide meal and grocery delivery and even some friendly contact via Line Bot, a robot that texts and chats. There is also punishment -- those who break quarantine face fines of up to NT$1million ($35,000).?
Here is how Taiwan has achieved its milestone:?
Taiwan began shutting down to non-residents shortly after the pandemic broke out in January and has kept tight control over its borders since.
¡°Taiwan¡¯s continual success is due to strict enforcement of border control,¡± says Jason Wang, director of Stanford University¡¯s Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention. That includes symptom-based surveillance before travelers board flights and digital fence tracking via cellular signals to ensure their compliance with a 14-day quarantine, he said.
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Quarantine Taiwan has world-class contact tracing -- on average, linking 20 to 30 contacts to each confirmed case. In extreme situations, such as that of a worker at a Taipei City hostess club who contracted the virus, the government tracked down as many as 150 contacts.?Then, all contacts must undergo a 14-day home quarantine, even if they test negative.?
So far, about 340,000 people have been under home quarantine, with fewer than 1,000 fined for breaking it. That means 99.7% have complied, according to Chen. ¡°We sacrificed 14 days of 340,000 people in exchange for normal lives for 23 million people,¡± Chen said.?
The painful lessons of past epidemics 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.