Taiwan has won much praise for its effective response to COVID-19, which for a long time kept the virus outside its borders. However, the virus has mutated and evolved, and eventually it found an Achilles’ heel in the form of China Airlines pilots. From the airline’s Novotel Taipei Taoyuan International Airport hotel, the fire spread to seedy “teahouses” in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), where it caused an outbreak of infections that has hit Taipei and New Taipei City the hardest.
Now the whole of Taiwan is under a level 3 COVID-19 alert and the streets are deserted.
Minister of Health and
Taiwan Counting On Self-Discipline To Stop COVID Spread Chemical troops disinfect public areas of Wanhua District in Taipei, June 2021 - Daniel Ceng Shou-Yi/ZUMA Wire
After having just a handful of cases, the virus is suddenly spreading on the island nation. Despite a relatively loose lockdown, residents boast that they know how to shut COVID down on their own.
TAIPEI Since May 15, when Taiwan s Central Epidemic Command Center announced that Taipei and New Taipei City were on Level 3 Epidemic Alert, photos and videos of street scenes of Taipei s empty city have filled social media. The posts often refer to Taiwan s self-discipline, with one boasting Watch out world, Taiwan will only demonstrate once how it will lift the level 3 (alert) within two weeks. What explains such public confidence?
COVID-19: CAA tells airline to report on passenger with virus
‘RECKLESS BEHAVIOR’: Uni Air staff did not closely inspect a passenger’s PCR test results before allowing the COVID-19-infected person on a flight, the CAA said
By Shelley Shan / Staff Reporter
The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) has asked Uni Air to report on why it allowed a Taiwanese passenger who tested positive for COVID-19 to board a flight to Xiamen, China, on Monday, the administration said yesterday.
The airline said that a woman surnamed Chen (陳), who flew to China aboard flight B7-511 from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), tested positive for the disease in a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test in Xiamen.
Private vaccine procurement efforts unlikely to succeed: Health minister
06/03/2021 10:29 PM
CNA file photo showing a woman receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.
Taipei, June 3 (CNA) Private efforts to procure COVID-19 vaccines for Taiwan, such as the one led by Buddhist group Fo Guang Shan, are well-intentioned, but unlikely to succeed, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said on Thursday.
Chen, who also heads Taiwan s Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), was responding to efforts by the Kaohsiung-based group to purchase 500,000 one-shot COVID-19 vaccines from the U.S. pharmaceutical firm Johnson & Johnson.
The plans, however, hit a significant snag on Wednesday, when the company said in a statement to the media that it would only sell vaccines to governments and selected international organizations.
Taipei, June 3 (CNA) Three people in Taiwan were hospitalized recently with symptoms believed to have been caused by the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said Thursday.