Enlight 21

Taiwan's Action Against Fighting the COVID-19

Author: Leo Lin | Category: Health | Date: 04-17-2020

Taiwan, a small island close to China has only about 400 cases of coronavirus with six deaths. It is a very surprising number considering that Taiwan is only about 81 miles from China, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus. With that short of a distance, it is a wonder that Taiwan has pulled off with such low confirmed cases. But how did they prevent the rapid spread of the coronavirus within their country? Taiwan did it by quickly, blocking international travel, lowering medical cost, putting more emphasis on medical equipment, enforce strict social distancing rules, and informing the public, lessons learned from the 2003 SARS pandemic.

The effect of the 2003 SARS pandemic were implanted in people's mind. Learning from their experience, Taiwan quickly blocked travelers from China and then form the world. All of this was implemented while other nations were still debating on what to do with the coronavirus. Undoubtedly, this action maybe what has lead to Taiwan to have such low cases.

By lowering the medical fees, people in Taiwan are more likely to visit the hospital to get proper medical care. Unlike the US, the medical bills are very low to the point where ordinary people do not have to worry about expensive medical bills, while in the US, medical bills are known to be very expensive prevented middle and lower class people from seeking medical attention.

Taiwan has made many of their factories focused on production sanitary products like face mask, gloves, hand sanitizers and any medical equipment needed to combat a epidemic. This increase of production has lead to the decrease of medical supply shortage and also reduce to cost of medical supplies so that ordinary citizens are able to buy these items for themselves. This process allows more and more people to acquire the protection they need in order to go outside to buy food and other essentials.

When Taiwan first announced the strict policy of social isolation, many people though that was a overreaction, but it was a smart move. From the horrors of the SARS pandemic, Taiwan has learned that strict social illation was the key to eliminate any virus. By quickly enforcing social distancing, it was very hard for the virus to spread to people with people isolating themselves from others.

A key point in combating the COVID-19 is to inform the public of the virus's whereabouts and Taiwan did a great job doing it. For example, they set up a Website where everyone can see which city has the most infected and which comities don't. Many other countries have done the same while some countries don't. A big example is China as they with held important information about the virus and it's effect from it's citizens and the world, resulting in a rather large amount of cases.

Overall, Taiwan has done a great job in preventing the spread of the coronavirus within it's country. Taiwan's actions can be a great example for many nations worldwide as their quick decisions and rapid self isolation has prevent many of it's own citizens from getting the virus. Other countries should follow Taiwan's example to lessen the impact from the coronavirus. Congratulations!!!

Sources:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/04/asia/taiwan-coronavirus-response-who-intl-hnk/index.html

https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-taiwan-case-study-rapid-response-containment-2020-3