Look back at key moments over past 100 days of CECC's fight with coronavirus

Taiwan News
Date:\ 2020/04/29
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Tuesday (April 28) marked the 100th day since Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) was activated and what follows is a look back at important dates and actions taken to fight off the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19):

On Dec. 31, Taiwan's Centers for Disease Control (CDC) contacted the WHO's International Health Regulation (IHR) focal point, as well as its Chinese counterparts, for confirmation that human-to-human transmission of COVID-19 was occurring. It never received a response.

Having learned a bitter lesson from SARS, which took hold in the early 2000s, the Taiwan government enhanced border control and quarantine measures, based on the assumption that such transmission was possible. It also began screening passengers arriving from the Chinese city of Wuhan before disembarkation that same day.

After China finally, quietly announced on Jan. 20 that human-to-human transmission of the disease was indeed occurring, Taiwan immediately activated the CECC. The sloth-like WHO did not warn the world about human-to-human transmission of the highly infectious disease until Jan. 24.
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