Taiwan's Coronavirus Defense Produced Positive Results

According to a new study published in JAMA, Taiwan is an example of how a society can respond quickly to a crisis and protect the interests of its citizens. 

Taiwan’s government learned from its 2003 SARS experience and established a public health response mechanism for enabling rapid actions for the next crisis. Well-trained and experienced teams of officials were quick to recognize the crisis and activated emergency management structures to address the emerging outbreak.

On January 27, 2020, the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) and the National Immigration Agency integrated patients’ past 14-day travel history in 1-day with their NHI identification card data from the NHIA.

Taiwan citizens’ household registration system and the foreigners’ entry card allowed the government to track individuals at high-risk because of recent travel history in affected areas. Those identified as high risk (under home quarantine) were monitored electronically through their mobile phones.

As of February 24th, Taiwan reported 30 cases, far fewer COVID-19 cases than the initial models predicting that Taiwan would have the second-highest importation risk. 

And, as of March 12th, Taiwan reported just 49 cases and 1 related fatality.

SARS-CoV-2 outbreak news published by Coronavirus Today.