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1.媒體來源:
外交家雜誌 - 總部位於美國華盛頓的英文線上時事雜誌


2.記者署名:
Nick Aspinwall [https://thediplomat.com/authors/nick-aspinwall/]
居住在台北


3.完整新聞標題:
Taiwan’s COVID-19 Spike Threatens to Unravel Its Success Story
臺灣COVID-19疫情爆發，可能破壞其成功故事


4.完整新聞內文:

While it’s not too late to turn the tide, Taiwan’s recent spike in
coronavirus cases has revealed flaws in the island’s internationally lauded
containment measures.

儘管現在扭轉局勢還爲時不晚，但臺灣最近冠狀病毒感染病例的激增，暴露了臺灣受到國
際讚譽的遏制措施的缺陷。

As countries around the world locked down in 2020, Taiwan shone as a beacon
of normalcy. Despite its geographical proximity to China, the island had
remarkable success in containing the coronavirus, recording zero locally
transmitted cases for an eight-month period between April and December and
avoiding business and school closures.



That’s all over now. Taiwan has recorded 1,824 domestic infections since May
14. Before that date, it had recorded a total of only 135 local infections.
The government has instituted a nationwide public mask mandate, along with
new restrictions on businesses and public gatherings.



“The outbreak is still at its peak,” Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said
at a Friday news conference.

衛生部部長陳時中在週五的記者會上說:「疫情仍處於高峰期。」

Taiwan has faced both domestic and international pressure to respond to its
first true domestic COVID-19 outbreak. Taiwan’s government had touted its
success in combating the virus to help boost its international presence and
win support from new allies as it combats an increasingly belligerent Chinese
regime. The island’s semiconductor manufacturers are also being pressed to
ramp up production to combat a global chip shortage, an effort which has
already been exacerbated by Taiwan’s worst drought in decades.



Things began to unravel when an outbreak emerged in April at the Novotel
airport hotel at Taoyuan International Airport, which had been used to house
quarantining pilots. Taiwan last month reduced quarantine requirements for
non-vaccinated pilots to three days. But the hotel put some pilots and crew
members in a second building used to house domestic guests.



The city government of Taoyuan, where the hotel is located, said last week it
had received a public complaint in February that the Novotel was being “used
illegally.”



The virus eventually spread to the “tea houses” of Taipei’s Wanhua
district – adult entertainment venues that were frequented by infected
pilots and crew members. Chen Chien-jen, an epidemiologist and Taiwan’s
former vice president, told the BBC that contact tracing was made difficult
as people who tested positive were unwilling to declare they had visited the
tea houses.



Taiwan’s Control Yuan, a government ombudsman body, said Friday it would
look into the tea houses and investigate why authorities had not cracked down
on them. A sex worker advocacy group, meanwhile, urged the public to stop
discriminating against workers at the tea houses, saying they have long been
a part of the district’s economy and offer many services that are not
related to sex.



Taiwan has also come under scrutiny for its long-standing strategy of
administering few COVID-19 tests, even among those who show symptoms. This
helped create a sentiment that Taiwan would remain free from the virus as
long as it did not penetrate the country’s borders.

臺灣也因其長期以來很少進行COVID-19檢測的策略而受到關注，即使是對有症狀的人也不
進行檢測。這助長了一種情緒，即只要病毒不擴散到臺灣，臺灣就不會受到病毒的影響。

But locally transmitted cases of the virus are now continuing to increase and
have spread to several hospitals. Taiwan’s cabinet said Friday it had not yet
reached the criteria to institute a full lockdown, but some city mayors have
told their citizens to prepare for further restrictions on activity.



Taiwan has struggled to obtain vaccines, and the domestic rollout has been
slow. Chen, the health minister, urged the United States on Friday to provide
assistance in obtaining COVID-19 vaccines, which one Taiwanese diplomat in
New York has argued will help protect the island’s semiconductor industry.



5.完整新聞連結 (或短網址):

https://bit.ly/3wrILv7


6.備註:



.. 略

總部位於美國華盛頓的英文線上時事雜誌「外交家」（The Diplomat）今天刊登陳時中的
投書，投書標題為「無論在對抗2019冠狀病毒疾病或下一個傳染病，台灣可以幫忙」。

.. 下略

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