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1.媒體來源: 彭博社


2.記者署名: Cindy Wang and Samson Ellis


3.完整新聞標題: Record 200 Days With No Local Cases Makes Taiwan Envy of World


4.完整新聞內文:

While many countries around the world are hitting new highs in coronavirus
cases, Taiwan has achieved a different kind of record -- 200 days without a
locally transmitted case.

Taiwan holds the world’s best virus record by far and reached the new
landmark on Thursday, even as the pathogen explodes anew in Europe and the
U.S. Taiwan’s last local case came on April 12; there has been no second
wave.

What did this island with 23 million people do right? It has had 550
confirmed cases, with only seven deaths. Experts say closing borders early
and tightly regulating travel have gone a long way toward fighting the virus.
Other factors include rigorous contact tracing, technology-enforced
quarantine and universal mask wearing. Further, Taiwan’s deadly experience
with SARS has scared people into compliance.

“Taiwan is the only major country that has so far been able to keep
community transmission of Covid eliminated,” said Peter Collignon, an
infectious disease physician and professor at the Australian National
University Medical School. Taiwan “probably had the best result around the
world,” he said, and it’s “even more impressive” for an economy with a
population about the same size as Australia’s, with many people living close
to one another in apartments.

Taiwan will be among the few economies to grow this year, with the government
in August forecasting that the gross domestic product will expand 1.56% in
2020.

Still, Taiwan isn’t out of the woods yet as it recorded 20 imported cases in
the past two weeks, mostly from Southeast Asian countries like the
Philippines and Indonesia. And others that fought the virus well initially,
like Singapore and Japan, then had spikes in cases.

What countries with surging infections can take away from Taiwan’s
experience is that nothing works without contact tracing those who have
tested positive and then quarantining them, said Chen Chien-jen, Taiwan’s
former vice president and an epidemiologist, in an interview.

Also, as it’s not easy to make people stay in quarantine, Taiwan has taken
steps to provide meal and grocery delivery and even some friendly contact via
Line Bot, a robot that texts and chats. There is also punishment -- those who
break quarantine face fines of up to NT$1million ($35,000).

Here is how Taiwan has achieved its milestone:

Border Control
Taiwan shut down to all non-residents shortly after the pandemic broke out in
January and has kept tight control over its borders since.

“Taiwan’s continual success is due to strict enforcement of border control,
” says Jason Wang, director of Stanford University’s Center for Policy,
Outcomes and Prevention. That includes symptom-based surveillance before
travelers board flights and digital fence tracking via cellular signals to
ensure their compliance with a 14-day quarantine, he said.

Masks, Distribution
The decision to stockpile and have central distribution of face masks played
a key role in Taiwan’s success. The government early in the pandemic
stockpiled all domestically produced face masks and banned export. Within
four months, companies increased production from 2 million to 20 million
units a day, enabling the island to ration masks to residents on a regular
basis.

Contact Tracing, Quarantine
Taiwan has world-class contact tracing -- on average, linking 20 to 30
contacts to each confirmed case. In extreme situations, such as that of a
worker at a Taipei City hostess club who contracted the virus, the government
tracked down as many as 150 contacts. Then, all contacts must undergo a
14-day home quarantine, even if they test negative.

So far, about 340,000 people have been under home quarantine, with fewer than
1,000 fined for breaking it. That means 99.7% have complied, according to
Chen. “We sacrificed 14 days of 340,000 people in exchange for normal lives
for 23 million people,” Chen said.

SARS Experience

The painful lessons of past epidemics paved the way of Taiwan’s success in
fighting Covid. It began building an emergency-response network for
containing infectious diseases after its experience with SARS in 2003, when
hundreds became ill and at least 73 died, for the world’s third-highest
infection rate. Taiwan later experienced pandemics like bird flu and
influenza H1N1. As a result, its residents are acutely aware of
disease-fighting habits like hand-washing and mask wearing.

5.完整新聞連結 (或短網址): https://tinyurl.com/y57jxpuz


6.備註:





圖片也說到人民很有勤洗手、戴口罩的意識

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