Taiwan kept Covid-19 below 15,000 cases for all 2021. Now it has 80,000 a day, testing its 'new model'

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TAIPEI — Billed a Covid-19 success story as its economy boomed through the pandemic, Taiwan is now battling a record wave of infections as it eases restrictions that had kept outbreaks at bay to start life with the virus.

For the whole of 2021, Taiwan reported less than 15,000 locally transmitted cases. Now, it's registering around 80,000 cases a day — a startling reversal after the effectiveness of its long-standing zero-Covid policy won it international praise.

Despite a peak of infection forecast for this week, the government is determined to end a policy that included largely closing its borders. It has relaxed restrictions, such as shortening mandatory quarantines, in what it calls the"new Taiwan model" — gradually living with the virus and avoiding shutting down the economy.

Former vice-president Chen said Taiwan would be ready to reopen to tourists when 75 to 80 per cent of the population had received a third vaccination shot. The rate currently stands at 64 per cent. Opposition parties said the government was ill-prepared, citing an initial shortage of home rapid test kits when cases started spiking last month, and criticised it for moving too slowly to secure vaccines for children under 12.

Source: Financial Digest (financialdigest.net)

 

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