After initially ignoring Taiwan’s requests to evacuate its nationals from Wuhan, the epicenter of the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak, Beijing finally relented and 247 Taiwanese returned home on Monday. If they show any signs of infection, they would be taken to a hospital immediately. He said he did not verify the report, not knowing that failure to do so was against the law. Such panic is understandable, as there have been reports of irresponsible Taiwanese returnees from Wuhan breaching their mandatory self-quarantine and appearing in public — and posting about their activities on Facebook. Internal bickering over just about anything is a time-honored Taiwanese tradition, but this is a serious humanitarian crisis with conditions unfavorable to Taiwan.

Source: Taipei Times February 04, 2020 15:56 UTC