How Taiwan’s COVID response became the world’s envy

While many countries around the world are hitting new highs in coronavirus cases, Taiwan has achieved a different kind of record — 200 days without a locally transmitted case.

Taiwan holds the world’s best virus record by far and reached the new landmark on Thursday, even as the pathogen explodes anew in Europe and the U.S. Taiwan’s last local case came on April 12; there has been no second wave.

What did this island of 23 million people do right? It has had 553 confirmed cases, with only seven deaths. Experts say closing borders early and tightly regulating travel have gone a long way toward fighting the virus. Other factors include rigorous contact tracing, technology-enforced quarantine and widespread mask wearing. Further, Taiwan’s deadly experience with SARS has scared people into compliance.

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“Taiwan is the only major country that has so far been able to keep community transmission of Covid eliminated,” said Peter Collignon, an infectious disease physician and professor at the Australian National University Medical School. Taiwan “probably had the best result around the world,” he said, and it’s “even more impressive” for an economy with a population about the same size as Australia’s, with many people living close to one another in apartments.

Taiwan will likely be among the few economies to grow this year, with the government in August forecasting that the gross domestic product will expand 1.56% in 2020.

Still, Taiwan isn’t out of the woods yet. The government confirmed three more imported cases Thursday, from the Philippines, U.S. and Indonesia, and in the past two weeks has recorded more than 20 imported cases. Also, others that fought the virus well initially, like Singapore and Japan, later had spikes in cases.

What countries with surging infections can take away from Taiwan’s experience is that nothing works without contact tracing those who have tested positive and then quarantining them, said Chen Chien-jen, Taiwan’s former vice president and an epidemiologist, in an interview.

Also, as it’s not easy to make people stay in quarantine, Taiwan has taken steps to provide meal and grocery delivery and even some friendly contact via Line Bot, a robot that texts and chats. There is also punishment — those who break quarantine face fines of up to NT$1million ($35,000).

Here is how Taiwan has achieved its milestone:

Border Control

Taiwan began shutting down to non-residents shortly after the pandemic broke out in January and has kept tight control over its borders since.

“Taiwan’s continual success is due to strict enforcement of border control,” says Jason Wang, director of Stanford University’s Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention. That includes symptom-based surveillance before travelers board flights and digital fence tracking via cellular...

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