How Taiwan survived when it’s mainland China affected most?

Since one week, media talked about failure stories of US, China, Italy and Spain on Coronavirus. But there is success story of small nation and very nearest to China. Taiwan is an island and is neighbor of mainland China. 

There is long political war between China and Taiwan. There is 180 kms distance between two nations. Taiwan has no recognition in any International bodies because of pressure from China. It is not member nation of either UN or WHO. When Wuhan Coronavirus cases are erupted, all eyes on Taiwan which is nearer to Wuhan. Some health experts had predicted that Taiwan would be the hardest hit locality when Covid-19 was first reported in Wuhan, the capital of central China’s Hubei province, which is less than two hours away from Taipei by air.

As per the latest states, Taiwan was reported just 300+ positive cases and 3 fatalities happened because of Coronavirus. China has 83K cases of Covid-19 and 3K deaths take place. Taiwan’s success at controlling the spread of deadly coronavirus infections on the island has won it global recognition. Fast response, transparency and efficacy have been credited for the success in controlling the pandemic virus in Taiwan. Taiwan’s Centres for Disease Control contacted mainland authorities and the World Health Organization about the possibility of human-to-human transmission on December 31. Taiwan expert team confirmed that human-to-human transmission of the pathogen was possible. Taiwan set up a fast response mechanism that helped it track down its first positive case in January.

Taiwan began to monitor all people who travelled to Wuhan in last 14 days after China announced lockdown of Wuhan on January 23^rd. Taiwan started imposing curbs to visitors and had prohibited travel agencies from organizing sightseeing trips to the mainland. It takes look into and monitored the travel history and health symptoms of incoming travellers from Wuhan. Heavy fines imposed for those who break the 14-day quarantine regulations. The introduction of the face mask rationing system has also helped to control Covid-19 cases. The rationing system allows each Taiwanese citizen to buy three masks per week at a minimum cost. Taiwan had learning lessons from the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome, or Sars, epidemic that took the precaution measures, including health inspection and border control on travellers from China.