How do we manage to keep Coronavirus under check without drastic lockdown?
1. Preparedness
Advance awareness from Govt and general public, people here are very paranoia about these kind of things ever since SARS hit, most of the people here wear mask even on a normal day.
We still remember the SARS outbreak of 2003. After the outbreak, the government established a public health response mechanism for future similar crisis involving 124 action items. Some of these items already went into effect as early as last Dec and early Jan after we found out that some weird mini outbreak was going on in Wuhan late last year.
Despite warning the WHO numerous times earlier this year that this "little" situation would become the next SARS, they played it down as China reported that its only a small sample and it's under control.
I went to Guangzhou for a conference in Jan and was immediately called back the moment i touched down as my superior told me that shit is about to hit fan. If I remember correctly around 200k Taiwanese were called back during that period.
2. Travel Restrictions
- Travel alerts for incoming Mainland Chinese since Feb 1
- Ports closed to Cruise ships
- No entry for Chinese Nationals since Feb 7th and non-Citizens since mid March(Though we opened our border selectively and with strict protocol in June)
- 14 day mandatory quarantine upon arrival since late Feb
3. Extended School Break
Schools were closed for 2+ weeks for Lunar New Year Holiday(January 2020) and the break was extended another 2 weeks to prevent any Coronavirus spread. Schools have since resumed in March.
4. Surgical Mask Strategy
Initially, masks were sold out of stores by early Feb. Mask production was ramped up and subsidized by Govt, supply was rationed through pharmacies nationwide, and export was banned until June/July. Enough masks, hand sanitizers and related PPE are guaranteed to everyone and the price of masks is capped.
5. Contact Tracing
Any confirmed cases were thoroughly interviewed to trace potentially exposed persons. These people’s faces mandatory quarantined and all had cell phones tracked to ensure compliance. Those breaking quarantine faced heavy fines of up to USD35,000. There was a case where 1 confirmed carrier broke protocol and went clubbing, he was fined and the authority managed to trace around 100 people that were in close contact with him and tested everyone of them within 1 week. Actually a majority of them reported themselves to the authority after they found out that they went to the same place with the carrier.
6. Culture
Most families have supplies of masks at home and everyone was ready to practice important habits like mask wearing, social distancing, and hand sanitizing as early as Jan/Feb. All shops and businesses have their own epidemic prevention practices and voluntarily implemented their own social distancing protocol even before the Govt asks them to do so.
7. Universal Healthcare
Our healthcare system ensures that almost every patient has insurance coverage. This means that we don’t need to avoid treatment or testing due to prohibitive costs.
Life here in Taiwan is pretty normal, there's no restriction of movement for the general population throughout, aside from the mandatory mask wearing, temperature checks and hand sanitizing before entering any venues or buildings, and the 4 weeks school closure in Feb, it's business as usual everywhere else, we’ve been able to enjoy nightlife, all outdoor activities, movies, concerts, sporting events and night markets.