Taiwan Covid-19: First local case reported in more than 250 days

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According to a statement issued on Tuesday by the island’s health ministry, a 30-year-old woman was infected after having contact with a foreign pilot, who also tested positive for the virus on December 8-12.

Taiwan has been without a coronavirus since April 12, registering only imported cases. Passengers arriving on the island must be quarantined, and those who test positive are isolated and treated. Three such imported cases were also recorded on Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases in Taiwan since the pandemic began to 770.

Taiwanese authorities began examining passengers on direct flights from Wuhan, where the virus was first identified on December 31, 2019 – when the virus was mainly the subject of rumors and limited reports.

Taiwan confirmed the first case reported on January 21, after which it banned Wuhan residents from traveling to the island. All passengers arriving from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao were required to be checked.

All this happened before Wuhan came to a standstill on January 23rd. By March, Taiwan had banned all foreign nationals from entering the island, except diplomats, residents and those with special entry visas.

At the same time, large-scale surveillance and surveillance programs and testing have allowed the Taiwanese authorities to effectively control the local epidemic and treat those who have been infected.

Taiwan’s success in maintaining the virus has allowed the island to open up and return to relative normalcy in recent months, even though other parts of East Asia have been plunged back into blockade or increased restrictions as a result of new waves of infection.

On Monday, a Taiwanese health official said he would not consider banning flights from the UK because a new strain had been detected due to sufficient preventive measures already in place, according to state media.

Those found violating measures that have allowed Taiwan to remain close to Covid for months could face severe punishments. Earlier this month, a man was fined $ 3,500 by Taiwanese authorities after violating quarantine for just 8 seconds.

The man, a migrant worker from the Philippines, was in quarantine at a hotel in Kaohsiung City when he briefly left the room in the lobby. He was caught on CCTV and reported to the Department of Health, which fined him.

Taiwan is not the only place in Asia facing the sudden reappearance of coronavirus. Hong Kong, Korea and Japan recently reported outbreaks, while Thailand began testing tens of thousands of people on Monday after a cluster was detected at a seafood market on the outskirts of Bangkok.

So far, about 400 people have tested positive for the new outbreak, and the Thai capital on Tuesday introduced new measures to distance itself and urged people to refrain from large gatherings to celebrate the New Year.

However, a similar number of infections is unlikely in Taiwan, as the island’s geographical isolation makes it easier to control and track infections than in many other parts of Asia.

Reports contributed by CNN’s Beijing office, Paula Hancocks and Joshua Berlinger.

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