How Taiwan beat COVID-19 - new study reveals clues to its success shanghainews.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from shanghainews.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Taiwan has been widely applauded for its management of the pandemic, with one of the lowest per capita COVID-19 rates in the world and life on the island largely returning to normal.
Just 11 people have died from COVID-19 in Taiwan since the pandemic began, an impressive feat for a country that never went into lockdown.
At the start of the pandemic, Taiwan was considered a high-risk country for COVID-19 due to its proximity to China and the frequent travel that takes place between the two countries.
A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association has examined further just why Taiwan did so well at conquering COVID-19. The study’s authors, from a range of health institutes and hospitals in Taiwan and the US, compared the estimated effectiveness of two types of COVID-19 policy in the early months of the pandemic: case-based and population-based measures.
Foreign visitor numbers may fall below 1m this year
By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
The number of international visitors is expected to fall below 1 million this year, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage around the world, the Tourism Bureau said yesterday.
Foreign travelers to Taiwan dropped from 11.84 million in 2019 to 1.377 million last year, bureau Director-General Chang Hsi-chung (張錫聰) told a media briefing in Taipei, adding that 1.3 million arrived during the first quarter, when the government had not yet banned foreign nationals from entering the country for tourism purposes.
With the travel ban still in the place, Chang said that the bureau was not optimistic about the projected number of foreign visitors this year.
Virus Outbreak: Ministry changes book trade show to online-only event
By Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter
The Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) scheduled to open on Tuesday next week has been changed to an online-only event, the Ministry of Culture said yesterday.
A forum for publishing professionals and the exhibition’s online presentation would be held, the ministry said in a statement.
Given changes in the local COVID-19 situation, the Central Epidemic Command Center on Tuesday requested organizers of public gatherings to assess the necessity of holding their events, as well as the degree of risk involved, it said.
Taipei Book Fair Foundation director Wang Hsiu-yin, second left, and other organizers of the Taipei International Book Exhibition promote the show in Taipei on Dec. 29 last year.
KMT to launch signature drive for pork referendum
AN EATER’s CHOICE? The party has six months to submit a list of nearly 290,000 valid signatures, or 1.5 percent of the total electorate in the most recent presidential election
By Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is on Jan. 6 to launch a nationwide signature drive to put the importation of US pork containing traces of ractopamine on the ballot, KMT caucus whip Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) said yesterday.
Lin is the lead proposer of a national referendum that would ask voters if they agree that the government should impose a complete ban on the importation of meat, offal and related products from pigs fed the controversial animal feed additive.