Previously hailed as one of the greatest coronavirus success stories, Taiwan has seen a sudden surge in COVID-19 cases, forcing the country to increase restrictions to curb outbreaks.
On Wednesday, CBS News reported that the country entered a Level 3 alert, one step below a national lockdown. All businesses have closed, schools have been shut for two weeks, and both indoor and outdoor gatherings are limited.
- Thursday, the country recorded 286 new cases transmitted domestically, the fifth consecutive day of triple-digit cases, said the AP and CBS News.
- In just the last week, Taiwan recorded over 1,000 new cases, over one-third of its total number of cases since the start of the pandemic, The Associated Press reports.
- More than 600,000 people are currently in quarantine due to exposure to an infected individual, the AP said.
- The East Asian island country has a population of 24 million people. According to CBS News, most of the recent cases have come from the capital, Taipei, and the surrounding municipality New Taipei City, an area with 7 million residents.
Why is Taiwan having coronavirus outbreaks now?
According to CBS News and The New York Times, Taiwan’s sudden rise in COVID-19 cases has been linked to four recent developments:
- Less than 1% of Taiwanese people have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, making it the least vaccinated population in Asia and one of the top 10 least vaccinated in the world, CBS News reports.
- Having been so successful in responding to COVID-19, the Taiwanese government and people had become complacent and apathetic towards the coronavirus, said CBS News.
- On April 14, regulations changed to shorten the mandatory quarantines of airline crews to only three days, down from the earlier requirement of five days, The New York Times reports. Early on, the recent surge in COVID-19 cases traced to airline crews.
- New, more transmissible variants have begun spreading recently, says The New York Times.
How successful was Taiwan at responding to COVID-19?
Early on in the pandemic, Taiwan closed its borders and mandated a 14-day quarantine for all new arrivals, says The New York Times and CBS News. The measures were effective at stopping the spread of coronavirus and making the country one of the safest in the world during the pandemic.
- Taiwan recorded 253 days without a single infection, from last April until December. CBS News says.
- Until last Saturday, Taiwan had only 1,290 COVID-19 cases and 12 deaths in the entire pandemic, The New York Times reported.
For most of the last year, life had nearly returned to normal with people wearing masks. Now, Taiwan’s current wave of outbreaks is the country’s worst situation of the pandemic, CBS News said.