Breitbart
Date: 12 Mar 2020
By: John Hayward

Taiwan’s remarkably low number of coronavirus infections – less than 50 in total despite the island’s proximity to the outbreak area and extensive travel and commerce with China – has been credited to swift and effective action when the epidemic began, starting with a firm travel ban on China and the semi-autonomous territories of Hong Kong and Macau.

Deutsche Welle noted on Wednesday that experts initially predicted Taiwan would be one of the hardest-hit victims of the epidemic, but it achieved one of the lowest rates of coronavirus infection in the world.

Many factors placed Taiwan at high risk, including dense urban populations, a high number of travelers from China, the coronavirus outbreak erupting during the Lunar New Year holiday, and a large population of Taiwanese citizens living or working in China. Taiwan gets about 2.7 million visitors from China annually and has well over a million citizens either working in China or living there full-time, measured against a total Taiwanese population of 23 million.

Taiwan benefited from its National Health Command Center (NHCC), an agency established after the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic and explicitly intended to help contain future disease outbreaks.    [FULL  STORY]