Is Covid success story Taiwan on brink of an outbreak?
Authorities considering upping alert level as cluster of untraced domestic infections reported
Taiwan has been held up as an example of how to tackle Covid since the pandemic began, with the island nation avoiding large outbreaks and the type of restrictions imposed elsewhere across the globe.
But now that run of success may be drawing to a close, as the authorities sound the alarm after 16 new domestic cases were reported on Wednesday - the most yet in Taiwan in a single day.
In a further worrying twist, six coronavirus cases detected in the northeast city of Yilan came “from an unknown source”, The Guardian reports. “Five of them are linked to an arcade hall, while another - a retiree with a busy social schedule - has no known link to any other cases.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
‘More careless’
The six cases in Yilan follow another outbreak of “at least 36 people linked to China Airlines staff and a Taoyuan Airport hotel”, The Guardian says. The cluster around the northern airport included “13 pilots and one flight attendant at the airline”, and prompted “mandatory quarantine of dozens of other staff members” that “caused cutbacks in cargo services”.
Until now, early and effective prevention measures have shielded Taiwan from the worst of the pandemic, with fewer than 1,250 cases reported and 12 deaths, according to latest data from John Hopkins University. However, Taiwan’s Premier Su Tseng-chang has warned that the population is becoming “more relaxed or careless as time goes by”.
The new cluster of cases has “unnerved an island that has taken pride in its decisive response” to the pandemic, with measures including the implementation of an “effective contact-tracing and quarantine system”, says Al Jazeera. Health Minister Chen Shih-chung has “urged people to stay calm, noting that Taiwan had an effective disease response mechanism”, the broadcaster reports.
He told the state-owned Central News Agency (CNA) on Wednesday that Taiwan may raise its pandemic alert level to three in “coming days”, a move that would include the closure of shops selling non-essential items. Restrictions on public gatherings have already been introduced.
The island is also “reimposing social distancing and mask rules”, the South China Morning Post reports, as well as introducing rules that mean “hospital patients and residents of long-term care facilities will not be able to have visitors for the next four weeks”.
“School closures and limiting people to their own neighbourhoods” will also be reintroduced, but only in “areas with community transmission”, The Guardian adds.
“As there are different local clusters, we are no longer on the verge of community transmission, but in the [first stage] of community transmission,” Chen told the Legislative Yuan - the Taiwanese parliament - yesterday.
“For the time being, these restrictions will be imposed from today until 8 June,” he added.
Regional spread
Taiwan closed its borders early in the pandemic in order to keep infections under control. But despite the continuation of that prompt and decisive action, one of the newly detected cases has been linked to India, where an aggressive outbreak of a “double mutant” Covid strain has pushed medical facilities to breaking point and driven consecutive record daily infection rates.
While infections rates currently remain low in Taiwan, the country’s low rate of Covid vaccination is fuelling concern about the new outbreaks. Taiwan has so far administered just 112,543 vaccines, which equates to 0.47 per 100 people receiving at least one dose, according to latest Oxford University tracking.
The new coronavirus cases come as Singapore and Vietnam - both of which also been successful in stopping the spread - also announce “sudden new outbreaks of the disease”, Al Jazeera says.
English-language Asian news network CNA reports that Singapore has reported ten new community cases this week, of which seven were linked to a cluster of cases linked to the city-state’s Changi Airport. Meanwhile, Vietnam reported 102 new infections on Sunday and is now battling a fast-spreading outbreak that Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has said threatens “political stability”.
“The risk for the outbreak to spread nationwide is very high,” Chinh said on Sunday. “We need to deploy stronger measures to curb the outbreak.
“If the outbreak spread nationwide, it would affect political stability, people's health and the National Assembly and People’s Council elections, and the consequence would be unpredictable.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Quincy Jones, music icon, is dead at 91
Speed Read The legendary producer is perhaps best known as the architect behind Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Moldova's pro-West president wins 2nd term
Speed Read Maia Sandu beat Alexandr Stoianoglo, despite suspicions of Russia meddling in the election
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
2024 race ends with swing state barnstorming
Speed Read Kamala Harris and Donald Trump held rallies in battlegrounds over the weekend
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Has the Taliban banned women from speaking?
Today's Big Question 'Rambling' message about 'bizarre' restriction joins series of recent decrees that amount to silencing of Afghanistan's women
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Cuba's energy crisis
The Explainer Already beset by a host of issues, the island nation is struggling with nationwide blackouts
By Rebekah Evans, The Week UK Published
-
Did the Covid virus leak from a lab?
The Explainer Once dismissed as a conspiracy theory, the idea that Covid-19 originated in a virology lab in Wuhan now has many adherents
By The Week UK Published
-
Putin's fixation with shamans
Under the Radar Secretive Russian leader, said to be fascinated with occult and pagan rituals, allegedly asked for blessing over nuclear weapons
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Chimpanzees are dying of human diseases
Under the radar Great apes are vulnerable to human pathogens thanks to genetic similarity, increased contact and no immunity
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Deaths of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies hang over Sydney's Mardi Gras
The Explainer Police officer, the former partner of TV presenter victim, charged with two counts of murder after turning himself in
By Austin Chen, The Week UK Published
-
Quiz of The Week: 24 February - 1 March
Puzzles and Quizzes Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Will mounting discontent affect Iran election?
Today's Big Question Low turnout is expected in poll seen as crucial test for Tehran's leadership
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published