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[a thread on Taiwan's #COVID19 response]
Got interested since a lot of experts have been praising Taiwan lately with their response - let me share some of what I found, as a Taiwanese consistently happy with the Taiwanese health system
Got interested since a lot of experts have been praising Taiwan lately with their response - let me share some of what I found, as a Taiwanese consistently happy with the Taiwanese health system
1. @JAMA_current did a piece on Taiwan's surveillance capacity
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762689
A specialized gov agency deals with large-scale outbreaks. It also helps that everyone had a national ID, and health insurance and medical records are linked altogether...
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762689
A specialized gov agency deals with large-scale outbreaks. It also helps that everyone had a national ID, and health insurance and medical records are linked altogether...
Home quarantine is done via mobile (LINE is the messaging app of choice), the gov't health hotline 1922 is toll free and has since been expanded to municipalities to expand number of calls it takes, health checklists are done via mobile so data gathering is seamless.
2. Taiwan rations their masks. As of last week, there's an odd-even scheme based on the national ID, with 3/adult, 5/child daily. Gov't provided incentives for private sector to ramp up production with goal of being 2nd largest mask manufacturer globally https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3890529
3. Gov't passed a law last week called the "Special Act on COVID-19 Prevention, Relief and Restoration" allocating 2B USD (!!!) till Jun 2021. In comparison, US is spending 8B for shorter period of time but with 14x the population http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2020/02/26/2003731638
4. The law may be accessed here: https://glin.ly.gov.tw/file/legal/tw2502202001.pdf
Article 4 is the most impressive - workers subject to home quarantine may recover lost wages from extended sick leaves by requesting compensation from gov't if not paid for by employer under company policy.
Article 4 is the most impressive - workers subject to home quarantine may recover lost wages from extended sick leaves by requesting compensation from gov't if not paid for by employer under company policy.
...Should employers compensate employees anyway, government will reward employers by providing tax breaks 2x the salary payout. Government also fines companies heavily for violating this provision of the law.
This isn't to say they are perfect - healthy people don't need masks and lines are long given the rationing; there was a minor scare when the Princess Diamond docked at New Taipei City before heading to Japan. But it's nice to know that a country is doing outbreak response right.
