Taiwan currently ranks 2nd in the Bloomberg Covid Resilience Ranking, a measure of the best places in the Covid-19 era.
Photographer: An Rong Xu / Getty Images
Photographer: An Rong Xu / Getty Images
The first case transmitted locally by Covid-19 in more than eight months was reported in Taiwan, ending the longest stretch in the world without an internal infection and providing a reminder of the virus’s ability to overcome even the most successful efforts to contain.
A 30-year-old woman has been confirmed to have caught Covid-19 in Taiwan, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said in a briefing in Taipei on Tuesday. While he saw cases of travelers arriving from outside, Taiwan’s last infection in the community was April 12.
The new local case came into repeated contact between December 7 and December 12 with a New Zealand pilot who caught Covid-19 abroad before traveling to Taiwan, according to Chen.
Health officials have identified another 167 people with whom the latest case came into contact before being isolated, the Centers for Disease Control said in a statement. The patient is an employee of an affiliate of Quanta Computer Inc., a company representative said in a phone call with Bloomberg. Since then, Quanta has tightened its control measures for the virus.
The police followed the last case after investigating all the people the pilot came in contact with before giving positive results. Two other confirmed cases contracted the virus from the pilot while working with him on a US flight to Taiwan on December 15.
Success story
The resurgence of a local outbreak threatens to derail one of the remarkable success stories in the global fight against the pandemic. Taiwan has managed to maintain its total number of cases 770, with only seven deaths, through a combination of restricting the trip to the island at the beginning of the outbreak and implementing a strict quarantine and contact tracking strategy.
Taiwan currently ranks 2nd in place of Bloomberg Covid Resilience Ranking, a measure of the best places to be in the Covid-19 era.
However, the continued spread of coronavirus worldwide meant that the Taiwanese authorities had to remain on guard. Since the last case of domestic transmission in April, more than 300 cases have been brought in by people returning from abroad.
Read more about Taiwan’s approach to virus mitigation here
The absence of the virus meant that life could go on almost as usual in Taiwan, an island about 80 miles off the southeast coast of China. Offices, schools and companies have remained largely open, as the government has avoided implementing a blockade, although wearing a mask is still encouraged. Taiwan’s successful management of the outbreak has meant that it has avoided the economic damage seen elsewhere, placing it among the few places where it is still located. predicting growth this year.
The domestic tourism industry has grown, with 24 million people in Taiwan unable to travel abroad for holidays due to restrictions. Meanwhile, external demand for Taiwan’s technology – hosted by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., a key iPhone maker and a number of chip makers – remains strong as people buy laptops and tablets to work and study at home.
The economy is likely to expand by about 2.3% this year, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg, in stark contrast to most other developed economies around the world that are expected to fall into recession.
Winter waves
Extremely contagious and manifested in some with few or no symptoms, the virus reappeared in a number of places where it was thought to have been largely eliminated. And many countries, such as Japan and South Korea, which have demonstrated initial success in the fight against the virus, are now facing their worst outbreaks as winter begins.
Thailand, the first country to register a Covid-19 case outside of China, and New Zealand both spent more than 100 days without a locally transmitted infection before new cases emerged.
Covid spreads in inexplicable ways, reducing the limitation The hope
In June, a new outbreak occurred in Beijing after 55 days without local cases. George Gao, head of China’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at the time that the transmission could have started a month earlier, with asymptomatic or slightly symptomatic patients still able to eliminate significant amounts of the virus. It is also possible to hide in dark and humid conditions before being amplified in infected people, he said.
(More detailed updates on how the most recent case caught the virus in the third, fourth and fifth paragraphs)