Taiwan’s COVID Cases Spike
by Evan Louie
Since the pandemic started in 2020, Taiwan has been one of the most successful countries in managing the crisis, and is only now seeing an “end to a Covid-free normality that residents had been enjoying for more than a year” (New York Times). Taiwan is able to draw from their experience in pandemic control from the 2003 SARS outbreak and has a culture of self-discipline where citizens voluntarily wear face masks and the issue is not politicized. Through May 15, Taiwan only had a total of 1,290 COVID cases and 12 deaths. As an island nation, they were able to shut their borders early in the pandemic and require 2-week quarantines of anyone entering the country. But now, Taiwan has relaxed quarantine restrictions, and people are “leaving their masks at home and abandoning social distancing” (New York Times). This has resulted in a surge of cases and Taiwan is currently recording between 200-350 infections a day.
Compounding the problem is the fact that only 1% of Taiwan’s population has been vaccinated. “Taiwan received its first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in early March, and it has since been gradually immunizing health workers and other priority groups” (New York Times). However, the general population was complacent and did not feel the need to get vaccinated because of how few cases there were. Now in the middle of a growing COVID crisis, Taiwan will look back on their recent decisions as irresponsible and jeopardizing all of their efforts to date to control the pandemic. Taiwan will now have to step up their vaccination efforts and make sure that all of their people take this virus seriously. Previous success in controlling the virus is not a guarantee for the future.
Discussion questions
What can Taiwan do now to gain control of the situation? Should Taiwan shut down its borders again or focus more on the virus’ spread within the country?
What lessons can be learned from Taiwan’s latest missteps?
Sources
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/20/world/asia/taiwan-covid-outbreak.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57153195
I think that Taiwan can gain back control of the situation by focusing on wearing masks and keep social distance. The citizens also should not go a lot outside so that they can't get the virus. In addition I think that they should take really careful steps to stop the spread of the virus. I think that Taiwan should shut down its borders and focus the more in the virus' spread in their country. The most important lesson that can be learned from Taiwan is that never be over confident.
ReplyDeleteIt can be learned that no matter how low a country's COVID cases are or how successful they appear to have been at controlling the pandemic, public health measures and restrictions cannot be relaxed until a significant portion of the population is vaccinated. The pandemic can spiral out of control no matter how few active cases there are in a country, and that must be taken into account. Global leaders cannot allow themselves to be lulled into a false sense of security, especially now that Taiwan has demonstrated the dangers of doing that.
ReplyDeleteTaiwan can learn that no matter how good the future looks, no matter if it looks like a country has almost over come the coronavirus, the nation must still hold the health restrictions and rules all the way until the end. A country must hold all their restrictions and keep on fighting the virus until the very end, until COVID-19 has officially been brought to an end.
ReplyDeleteI feel that we can all learn from Taiwan's mistakes in the sense that many feel that although cases are continuing to drop that we can go about our daily life, yet with that people don't feel a need to get vaccinated. I feel that this is a valuable lesson to get vaccinated to help end the increasing cases.
ReplyDeleteTaiwan must now focus on vaccinations to gain control of the situation. A country with no cases does not mean they do not still have an ongoing pandemic, it is only when all in the country is safe and vaccinated that the pandemic can be over. Taiwan's priorities must be getting in line for the Pfizer as soon as possible and brainstorming an efficient way to distribute the vaccine out when it comes. Until then, everything they are doing right now is just damage control.
ReplyDeleteTaiwan could learn that even if circumstances are looking good, a nation should still take a crisis as important as the pandemic seriously and take all precautions. Every country, no matter their situation should be somewhat cautious until the pandemic can be managed.
ReplyDelete