Radio Taiwan International
Date: 19 March, 2020
By: Jake Chen

Taiwan has confirmed eight new cases of COVID-19. This brings Taiwan’s total number of confirmed cases since the start of the outbreak up to108.

Six out of the eight new cases are Taiwanese citizens who recently returned from travel or study abroad. Between them, they had recently traveled to Egypt, the United States, Austria, the Czech Republic, France, and Spain. 

A seventh case is a French man in his 50’s who came to visit his family in Taiwan. He began to show symptoms of COVID-19 on Monday and was admitted to a hospital soon after.
[FULL  STORY]

Los Angelese Times
Date: March 19, 2020
By David Pi0ersons, staff writer

SINGAPORE —  

In a sign of how difficult it will be to contain the coronavirus over time, Asia is reporting spikes in new cases of the disease known as COVID-19 after weeks of relative calm.

Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan recorded new highs for daily cases this week and South Korea reported its highest daily tally in eight days on Thursday.

The development should worry policymakers in the United States and Europe, which are now the centers of a growing pandemic that began in China.

Asia has been viewed as a model for the West to follow because of its rampant testing and the seriousness in which its populations have followed health guidelines.  [FULL  STORY]

City councilor worried drinking fountains might become gap in containment efforts

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/19
By George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Beginning Friday (March 20), Taipei City will suspend the use drinking fountains in response to the concerns of a city councilor who pointed out that fountains with inadequate disinfection measures might become a gap the containment of the coronavirus (COVID-19.

The Taipei Water Department said that there are 643 drinking fountains under its jurisdiction, including those found in MRT stations, parks, and along hiking trails and riverside bikeways. These fountains will cease operating Friday, the Liberty Times reported.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/19/2020
By: Chang Min-hsuan, Chen Yi-hsuan and Ko Lin

Taipei, March 19 (CNA) Clinical trials of the antiviral drug remdesivir for the treatment of the coronavirus disease COVID-19 have already started in Taiwan, Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) expert Chang Shang-chun (張上淳) said Thursday.

Speaking at a daily CECC briefing in Taipei, Chang said remdesivir is a highly anticipated drug that many believe could be a potential treatment for COVID-19 patients.

Originally developed by the American drugmaker Gilead Sciences for use against the Ebola virus, remdesivir has been widely discussed as a possible coronavirus treatment, following positive results from Chinese and American doctors who have administered the drug experimentally.

On Jan. 31, Gilead said in a statement that it was working with the Chinese authorities to conduct a clinical trial involving the use of remdesivir on coronavirus patients.   [FULL  STORY]

COLLABORATION: President Tsai Ing-wen said she wished to thank the public for their compliance and the nation’s medical personnel for their tireless fight against COVID-19

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 20, 2020
By Su Yung-yao and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The government would stabilize the stock market and boost disease-prevention measures to

contain COVID-19, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday, adding that people hoarding supplies would face penalties.

Tsai, accompanied b0y Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), told a news conference at the Presidential Office in Taipei that the situation on the ground would dictate whether fast-tracked legislation or emergency presidential decrees would be necessary, while existing regulations adequately allow the government to respond.

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), along with the Taiwan People’s Party, had on Wednesday called on the government to issue an emergency presidential decree to provide a legal basis for disease-prevention efforts, as well as to resolve whether restrictions in place are infringing on the constitutionally guaranteed right to free movement.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 18 March, 2020
By: Jake Chen

The head of the government statistics office says that Taiwan’s economy could grow by at least 2% by the end of the year. That’s despite the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on Taiwan’s economy—and despite suggestions to the contrary from one analysis firm.

In a new report, UK-based firm HIS MARKET has lowered its projection of Taiwan’s annual economic growth to 1.1%. By contrast, the government’s projection currently stands at 2.72% growth.    [FULL  STORY]

The island nation’s government is staying ahead of the virus, but don’t ascribe it to “Confucian values.” Credit democracy and transparency.

Wired
Date: 03.18.2020 

AS OF WEDNESDAY, the nation of Taiwan had recorded 100 cases of Covid-19, a remarkably low number given the island’s proximity to China. Some 2.71 million mainland Chinese visited Taiwan in 2019, and as recently as January there were a dozen round trip flights between Wuhan and Taipei every week. But despite its obvious vulnerabilities, Taiwan has managed, so far, to keep well ahead of the infectious curve through a combination of early response, pervasive screening, contact tracing, comprehensive testing, and the adroit use of technology.

As millions of citizens in the US shelter in place while girding themselves for the double whammy of an accelerating outbreak and a vicious economic recession, it is natural enough to look at Taiwan’s example and wonder why we didn’t do what they did, or, more pertinently, could we have done what they did? But a common theme in the recent press coverage of Taiwan’s (and Singapore’s) efforts to contain Covid-19 has included a consistent cautionary note. With particular attention to the technologically intrusive surveillance-state aspects of Taiwan’s response—notably, its real-time integration of national health care databases with customs and travel records and its use of government-issued cell phones to remotely monitor quarantine orders—we keep seeing the culturally embedded assumption that East Asian-style state social control just won’t fly in the good old, individualist, government-wary, freedom-loving United States.

The New York Times: People in “places like Singapore … are more willing to accept government orders.” Fortune: “There seems to be more of a willingness to place the community and society needs over individual liberty.” Even WIRED: “These countries all have social structures and traditions that might make this kind of surveillance and control a little easier than in the don’t-tread-on-me United States.”   [FULL  STORY]

A total of 11 CIB officers escorted 26 suspects via Turkey

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/03/18
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Eleven Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) officers who last weekend escorted 26 Taiwanese suspects back from Montenegro have to stay home in coronavirus quarantine, reports said Wednesday (March 18).

A total of 92 Taiwanese nationals were detained in the Balkan state after an international investigation into organized crime and people smuggling, CNA reported. The plan was to bring back the suspects in five batches.

On March 13, a group of eight traveled home to Taiwan, followed by 18 more on March 15. On their way back, both groups spent about an hour at a Turkish airport in transit. Taiwanese tourists who visited Turkey have been mentioned in the list of 100 Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) cases confirmed on the island so far.

During their trip, the CIB officers and the suspects wore face masks, special protective eyeglasses, and gloves, while the airline gave them seats in the rear of the plane away from other passengers.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/18/2020
By: Chen Wei-ting, Chang Ming-hsuan and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, March 18 (CNA) A total of 23 new COVID-19 cases, 21 of which originated overseas, were confirmed in Taiwan on Wednesday, bringing the total number in the country to 100, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.

Among the new cases, two are believed to have contracted the coronavirus locally, said CECC head, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中).

One of the two, a man in his 20s, is the child of confirmed COVID-19 patient who contracted the virus during a recent trip to Egypt.

The man was asked to take a test by health authorities because of his close contact with the confirmed case and tested positive even though he has so far shown no symptoms of infection, Chen said.    [FULL  STORY]

MASS ISOLATION: All travelers who earlier this month entered Taiwan from 27 European countries, Egypt, Turkey or the UAE must undergo a 14-day quarantine

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 19, 2020
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

Starting today, foreign nationals are to be denied entry into Taiwan and all travelers are to be placed under mandatory 14-day quarantine upon arrival, the Central Epidemic Command Center announced yesterday.

Travelers who arrived from 27 European countries, Egypt, Turkey or Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), between March 5 and Saturday last week are required to report to their local district or township office and begin a 14-day home quarantine, it said.

The 27 European countries are Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

An airline employee at Taipei International Aiport (Songshan airport) yesterday walks past an arrivals board on which almost all incoming flights are marked as canceled.

Photo: CNA

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the number of imported COVID-19 cases has escalated quickly in the past few days.
[FULL  STORY]