#15,122
Until mid-February, Mainland China and an handful of adjacent Asian countries and territories were the front lines for the looming COVID-19 pandemic. While the epidemic raged in China - despite their close proximity - we saw remarkable success by Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore in identifying and isolating imported cases, and preventing community spread.
By the last week of February - even as China's numbers were dropping rapidly - we began to see new hotspots of transmission around the world, including in Italy, Iran, and South Korea. And over the next couple of weeks, the epicenter of the pandemic shifted to Europe and the Middle East.Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore, however, due to their rigid contract tracing, quarantine and isolation policies, and aggressive social distancing measures (which were adopted quite early), continued to demonstrate remarkable control over community spread.
Even Japan, which had been comparatively slow to enact social distancing measures, was reporting fewer than 200 cases. Their limited testing policy, however, likely masked the extent COVID-19 spread in their country as 3 weeks later they have broken the 1,000 case mark.Up until a about week ago, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore were still reporting great success, albeit at considerable societal and economic cost. Between community `fatigue', and the continued import of new cases from the rest of the world, all three have begun to lose ground against the virus.
- Taiwan continues to have the lowest number of cases (n=169), but has seen almost a 3-fold increase over the past 7 days.
- Hong Kong has seen their numbers (n=317) double over the past week.
- As has Singapore, with 432 cases.
Despite the growing uptick of numbers, they are successfully `flattening the curve'. Which, during a pandemic, is realistically the best you can hope for.
Unlike Italy, and Iran, and Washington State in the United States, they haven't overburdened their healthcare system. And while that may still happen, they've bought valuable time by implementing strict social distancing, shutting down public venues, and in the case of Hong Kong, closing schools for more than 2 months (and counting).
In view of the recent uptick in cases, Hong Kong and Taiwan overnight announced more stringent measures, in a renewed attempt to slow the rise in cases.Taiwan, which had already barred entry to everyone (apart from residence permit holders) and is quarantining all permitted arrivals for 14 days, will - for the next two weeks - no longer allow airline passengers to transit vits Taiwan.
From March 24th to April 7th, China bans passengers from boarding and connecting to Taiwan
Release Date: 2020-03-22
The Central Epidemic Command Center said today (22) that the COVID-19 (Wuhan Pneumonia) outbreak has caused a global pandemic and the number of overseas migration cases continues to climb, in order to avoid the spread of the epidemic by air transport, from 0:00 on Tuesday, March 24, Taipei time to April 7, China has banned passengers from boarding flights to Taiwan to reduce the cross-border movement of people and reduce the risk of disease transmission.
Command center said that the return of people must be indeed filled in the entry health declaration and home quarantine notice, if there is fever, cough and other symptoms please take the initiative to inform quarantine personnel and cooperate with the relevant quarantine measures; Wear a mask as soon as possible and be sure to inform your physician of your travel history, occupation, contact history and grouping (TOCC), as well as time diagnostic notifications.Meanwhile, Hong Kong today announced more stringent measures - including criminal penalties for those who violate home quarantine - in order to slow the recent rise in cases.
Two reports from the HK government.
The epidemic is getting worse, the public should not relax.
March 21, 2020
The Chief Executive, Mrs Lam Cheng-yue, said that the return tide was expected to last at least two weeks and that the outbreak in Hong Kong was very serious and critical, that the Government would do its best to prevent and combat the epidemic, and that the public should continue to pay attention to personal and environmental hygiene, reduce their travel and not relax.
Speaking at a press conference today, Mrs Lam said that she had convened a meeting of the expert advisory group this morning for the second time this week, with four experts present for nearly three hours of discussion, and that it was felt that a more solemn and strong message was needed from the community on the 2019 coronavirus outbreak.
She pointed out that outbreaks caused by overseas import cases were more severe and difficult to deal with at any time over the past two months and could lead to large and sustained community outbreaks, which would significantly increase the number of confirmed cases and paralyse the entire health care system.
Faced with the reality that medical facilities, quarantine centres, protective equipment and virus testing agents are in short supply, Hong Kong has adopted a risk-based response strategy to deal with real-time outbreaks and to spare efforts to deal with the possibility of worse situations. Experts agreed that the Government could adjust its approach and strike a balance between the effectiveness of prevention and control and the practicality of the two.
Mr lam said that the overall number of confirmed cases seemed inevitable, given the need to take into account Hong Kong residents who had to return to Hong Kong as a result of the outbreak.
She pointed out that the Government and the Hospital Authority strive to do a good job of early identification, early isolation, early treatment. As for the public, we should continue to pay attention to personal and environmental hygiene, maintain social distance, reduce the number of outings, avoid dinnerors or dinners, and change the way they work.
Chief Executive: Immediate prosecution for quarantine order
March 21, 2020
Chief Executive Lin Zhengyue said that the authorities would take action against those who violated the home quarantine order. Four offenders would be placed under quarantine quarantine, and the police would take prosecutions. Those who are receiving a home quarantine order must not try the law in person.(Continue . . . )
Lin Zhengyue said at a press conference today that, in response to the community's concern about violations of the household quarantine order, she would have asked law enforcement agencies to conduct surprise inspections and strengthen inspections in crowded places.
If the authorities find that someone has violated the quarantine order, they will adopt a zero-tolerance attitude and promptly prosecute without warning. Offenders are liable to a maximum of six months' imprisonment and a fine of $ 25,000.
The success of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore in controlling, and slowing the spread, of COVID-19 is both remarkable, and a reminder that our battle against this pandemic is a marathon - not a sprint. One that we may be running - due to recurrent pandemic waves - for the next year or longer.
Success won't be defined by stopping the virus, but rather by finding ways to keep the number of concurrent infections below critical levels and human losses to a minimum, all the while keeping essential services (including hospitals) working and the the fabric of society intact.It's a tall order. Success for any nation if far from guaranteed, and the enormous cost of doing these things is only exceeded by the cost of not doing them.
But so far, the numbers show that Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan have conducted a master class on how to blunt a pandemic. They started with tough measures, and they have continued to tweak them as conditions change or the need arises.We should all be taking notes. Because ready or not, all of their problems will shortly be on our final exam.
