Taiwan facing risk of infection wave due to flawed control effort: experts
Vacationers view the Taipei 101 skyscraper, a landmark in Taipei, southeast China’s Taiwan, Jan. 2, 2017. (Xinhua/Zhu Xiang)
The island of Taiwan’s epidemic management efforts towards the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) are severely flawed and Taiwan is going through the danger of one other wave of COVID-19 infections, because the island’s authority beforehand solely targeted on stopping circumstances from the Chinese language mainland however not these from the remainder of the world, a number of consultants from the island stated on Wednesday.
The consultants’ statements got here after US-based media outlet International Coverage revealed an argument article on Monday titled “Concern of China Made Taiwan a Coronavirus Success Story,” which claimed the island had introduced issues below management utilizing “a mixture of early vigilance, proactive measures, and data sharing with the general public, in addition to making use of know-how within the type of analyzing large knowledge and on-line platforms.”
It’s “in stark distinction to [the Chinese mainland]’s use of draconian and coercive measures and censorship to deal with the coronavirus outbreak,” the article claimed.
The article was clearly trying to undermine the Chinese language mainland’s epidemic management efforts, analysts stated.
COPYRIGHT_BP: Published on https://bingepost.com/taiwan-facing-risk-of-infection-wave-due-to-flawed-control-effort-experts/68374/ by Cecilia Jones on 2020-03-20T17:45:39.000Z
Nevertheless, 23 new circumstances had been confirmed in Taiwan on Wednesday, with the whole quantity now exceeding 100, native media reported. Taiwan had not seen a surge in confirmed circumstances like this for the reason that first case was confirmed on January 21.
Pan Huai-tsung, a well being professional in Taiwan, informed the World Instances on Wednesday that Taiwan’s preliminary prevention efforts had been certainly efficient, however that was as a result of there have been fortunately not so many circumstances that the island’s functionality to diagnose them had been exceeded, and other people in Taiwan had comparatively good consciousness of self-protection and quarantine.
Echoing Pan, Cheng Po-yu, government officer of a cross-Straits youth communication affiliation, stated, “It was not as a result of the Tsai Ing-wen administration took some particular measures that contained the virus, it was as a result of individuals have a robust consciousness, since all of us skilled SARS a few years in the past.”
The Tsai Ing-wen administration is just taking credit score for individuals’s personal consciousness of the dangers, Cheng stated.
Taiwan’s prevention efforts began in early February, because the island took measures to restrict individuals who lived within the Chinese language mainland or had been there within the final 14 days from getting into the island. It was solely on Wednesday that the Taiwan authority warned individuals in Taiwan to not make non-essential journeys to places within the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and other people getting into Taiwan from these areas ought to be quarantined for 14 days.
Wang Bing-chung, a political commentator in Taiwan, informed the World Instances on Wednesday that there have been only a few guests from the mainland even earlier than the outbreak, as self-guided journey had been suspended way back. The true threat Taiwan is going through now could be that it was solely specializing in the mainland for prevention, however not the remainder of the world.
“The epidemic has already develop into severe all over the world, and the US is criticized for delaying its epidemic management as a result of it could not conduct checks… However Taiwan solely introduced additional measures at present, which means it has already missed the very best alternative. So at present’s surge of greater than 20 circumstances largely got here from different international locations,” Wang stated on Wednesday.
The Wall Avenue Journal stated in a report on Wednesday that Taiwan could face a second wave of COVID-19 infections, a prediction Pan agrees with.
Taiwan shouldn’t be taking concentrated quarantine measures on people who find themselves coming to the island from different international locations and areas just like the Chinese language mainland is doing, Pan stated, noting that they’re solely present process dwelling quarantine.
“That is worrying,” Pan stated, stressing that COVID-19 is a crafty virus that may unfold with out exhibiting signs.
The mainland’s epidemic management efforts are a miracle, Pan stated, noting that he hopes the mainland will assist Taiwan if the island falls right into a scenario the place the epidemic goes uncontrolled.
