Panic buying has hit Taipei amid a surge in coronavirus cases
Credit: ANN WANG /REUTERS
It had all been going so well. Until last weekend, the havoc of the pandemic was only evident at Taiwan’s borders, which were all but sealed to non-citizens and where arrivals had to endure strictly monitored quarantine for 14 days.
Life inside the island bubble was otherwise normal for its 24 million people – children attended school, businesses thrived, restaurants were packed, the economy grew – until a series of small lapses in judgment allowed Covid to spread.
In the past five days, a sudden surge of more than 1,200 infections after Taiwan successfully battled for 15 months to keep local transmissions below 100, is a cautionary tale that, until much of the world has been vaccinated, no country can afford to let its guard down.