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Travel Med Infect Dis · Nov 2020
LetterMasks and medical care: Two keys to Taiwan's success in preventing COVID-19 spread.
Although Taiwan has geographic, commercial and social proximity to China, it stands as a stark example of success in response to the SARS-CoV-II pandemic.
"Despite being close to China, Taiwan has stopped the COVID-19 with general screening strategy and encouraging people in Taiwan to wear a mask. Taiwan reported the first COVID-19 case on January 21, 2020. About 850,000 and 400,000 of Taiwan's 23 million citizens live and work in mainland China, respectively."
Many factors have contributed to this success, beginning with Taiwan's memory and lessons drawn from the 2003 SARS-I pandemic.
Two notable factors are Taiwan's national health service, with it's ubiquitous and affordable access to acute medical care:
"Taiwanese people … can go to the emergency department of the nearest hospital for relevant medical examinations (including sampling and testing for COVID-19, blood tests, and X-ray imaging test) with out-of-pocket medical expenses of less than NT$ 600 (USD 20). People with high suspicion of COVID-19 infection will be admitted to isolation wards, and those who have tested positive for COVID-19 can only be discharged home after three consecutive respiratory specimens test negative for the virus. … patients will have to pay less than NT$ 3000 (USD 100) out-of-pocket for medical services."
And their management of mask access, production and subsequent widespread public use:
summary"The daily production capacity of face mask manufacturers in Taiwan before the outbreak was 1.88 million face masks ... Currently, Taiwan is capable of producing 20 million face masks per day and will boost its production capacity to 25 million face masks per day."
- Yi-Fong Su Vincent V Department of Internal Medicine, Taipei City Hospital, Taipei City Government, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Chest Medicine, Taipei Veterans General , Yung-Feng Yen, Kuang-Yao Yang, Wei-Juin Su, Kun-Ta Chou, Yuh-Min Chen, and Diahn-Warng Perng.
- Department of Internal Medicine, Taipei City Hospital, Taipei City Government, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Chest Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Faculty of Medicine, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan. Electronic address: bsbipoke@hotmail.com.
- Travel Med Infect Dis. 2020 Nov 1; 38: 101780.
no abstract available
Notes
Although Taiwan has geographic, commercial and social proximity to China, it stands as a stark example of success in response to the SARS-CoV-II pandemic.
"Despite being close to China, Taiwan has stopped the COVID-19 with general screening strategy and encouraging people in Taiwan to wear a mask. Taiwan reported the first COVID-19 case on January 21, 2020. About 850,000 and 400,000 of Taiwan's 23 million citizens live and work in mainland China, respectively."
Many factors have contributed to this success, beginning with Taiwan's memory and lessons drawn from the 2003 SARS-I pandemic.
Two notable factors are Taiwan's national health service, with it's ubiquitous and affordable access to acute medical care:
"Taiwanese people … can go to the emergency department of the nearest hospital for relevant medical examinations (including sampling and testing for COVID-19, blood tests, and X-ray imaging test) with out-of-pocket medical expenses of less than NT$ 600 (USD 20). People with high suspicion of COVID-19 infection will be admitted to isolation wards, and those who have tested positive for COVID-19 can only be discharged home after three consecutive respiratory specimens test negative for the virus. … patients will have to pay less than NT$ 3000 (USD 100) out-of-pocket for medical services."
And their management of mask access, production and subsequent widespread public use:
"The daily production capacity of face mask manufacturers in Taiwan before the outbreak was 1.88 million face masks ... Currently, Taiwan is capable of producing 20 million face masks per day and will boost its production capacity to 25 million face masks per day."
Daniel Jolley
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