TAIPEI, Taiwan — No one in the Taiwanese capital has a face. At least, the one they are willing to disclose to the public.
Pedestrians, drivers of the city’s ubiquitous mopeds, cyclists and everyone else still wear masks, though the government hasn’t required many to cover their faces since July.
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Most Canadians abandoned masks as soon as legally possible, and much earlier in many cases. Opposition to vaccine and mask mandates and lockdown orders designed to curb the spread or severity of COVID has become a gripping cause for some, who believed the regulations violated their fundamental freedoms.
But here in Taiwan, the country’s public health officials say, such measures have been taken by the public, a collective commitment that officials say has helped give the island one of the most productive records for COVID in the world.
“People know that when outbreaks like this come to harass us, other people deserve to cooperate with each other and accept the government as true,” said Yi-Chun Lo, deputy director-general of the country’s Centers for Disease Control.
“It is vital that the government still enjoys the public accepting as true what has been built in recent years,” he said. “The public here, they accept it as true with the doctors, they accept it as true with the experts. “
A bit of brilliance has recently emerged from Taiwan’s consistent COVID experience, once among the most impressive in the world. 1,185 in Canada and a rate of 3,135 in the United States, according to Our World in Data.
For the more than two and a half years, the country virtually closed its borders to non-citizens and demanded entry to the island to be quarantined for two weeks at a time. Dozens of hotels have been designated as quarantined accommodations, even though the isolation requirement will be lifted absolutely for foreign travelers on October 13.
Taiwan has tracked thousands of other quarantined people at once on their mobile phones and, even now, still asks travelers to buy a SIM card with a local number. the rules.
Employees at institutions ranging from schools to karaoke bars to beauty salons were ordered to receive 3 COVID vaccines, while everyone had to wear a mask outside the home, with exemptions announced in July for moped users, cyclists and others.
But even then, he kept using them, Lo noted.
“It’s a component of Taiwanese culture,” he said with a smile. “They need to exaggerate what the government says. “
A minority of Canadians, by contrast, vigorously defied mask and vaccination mandates, culminating in the freedom convoy that paralyzed downtown Ottawa for weeks through streets clogged with parked trucks.
He said less than five percent of Taiwanese oppose vaccination. Part of the motivation comes from memories of “catastrophic” SARS 19 years ago, he said, Toronto also experienced a primary SARS outbreak, with 43 deaths.
In addition to the highest levels of public trust, the government has tried to be as transparent as possible. Daily press briefings on COVID issues, which are not usually held in Canada, are still held in Taiwan and don’t end until there are more questions from reporters. , he said.
But even though the public has accepted the restrictions, the number of cases has remained low enough to avoid lockdowns, allowing life to continue relatively normally since the beginning of the pandemic.
This contrasts with China’s strict zero-COVID policy that has forced millions of people to stay home to prevent the spread of the virus, prompting occasional protests in the authoritarian state and undermining the country’s economy.
Lo said he believes Beijing does not yet have options to do so because China’s vaccination rate is low and the locally produced vaccines it administers are not as effective as others. The continent, for example, has not performed any of the mRNA injections considered to be the maximum effective coverage against COVID.
“China faces a big challenge if it opens up, if it doesn’t adhere to 0 covid. . . There will be a massive wave.
(The National Post is in Taiwan by invitation and with Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry, which has no influence on coverage. )
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