However, Taiwan has been on constant alert and ready to act on epidemics originating from China since the SARS outbreak in 2003, it says. The paper only includes information up to Feb. 24, when only 30 confirmed cases had been reported in Taiwan, which then had the 10th-highest number of cases among nations affected by the coronavirus, Chuang said. With 42 confirmed cases as of yesterday, Taiwan is 16th in number of confirmed cases among affected nations, demonstrating that its ranking has fallen amid a number of outbreaks worldwide, he said. “Understanding the action items that were implemented quickly in Taiwan and assessing the effectiveness of these actions in preventing a large-scale epidemic may be instructive for other countries,” the paper says. “Although we still face many challenges ahead as the battle against COVID-19 continues, we are grateful that the academic wrote the paper to allow the world to know the efforts being made in Taiwan,” Chuang said.

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