Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/24/2020
By: Flor Wang, K.H. Wen and S.F. Wang

Taipei, April 24 (CNA) On the 17th anniversary of a lockdown imposed on a Taipei hospital amid a

severe SARS outbreak, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Friday urged unity between the government and society to combat the spread of the COVID-19 conoravirus, which first appeared in Wuhan, China in December.

"If SARS taught the Taiwanese anything, the lesson was that we should be more united and set aside our political differences in the face of epidemics," Tsai said in a Facebook post.

"The central and local governments and the people should work together to fight epidemics,"she wrote.

The sudden closure of Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital on April 24, 2003 amid the SARS outbreak, with more than 1,000 medical staff, patients, their relatives and others inside, triggered widespread panic across the country, she recalled.    [FULL  STORY]