Well, the two are related when it comes to a number of the imported cases involving Taiwanese who took advantage of their ability to leave and come back during a pandemic.
Also, starting this month, I believe both Canada and the US are requiring all passengers, including citizens, to present evidence of a negative Covid test before flying back.
Closing borders completely might not be realistic, but Taiwan isn’t really close to that extreme. It could be a lot more strict and still have people coming in.
Nobody is panicking. Lots of people still aren’t wearing masks. There hasn’t been a run on masks, hand sanitizer, cleaning products, TP, etc.
We might not have a vaccine here, but Taiwan has become immune to the idea that we could ever have an outbreak.
Between the pilot and hospital cluster (which apparently involves a more aggressive strain of the virus) however it seems pretty obvious that the virus is knocking on the door more than ever and if we aren’t vigilant, it might eventually get in.
I’m personally hopeful that our luck will continue, but anyone who is totally confident after an infected person with a more aggressive strain was cashiering and making food at a fast food restaurant for 2 days isn’t basing their confidence on scientific reasoning.
There is also a long waiting list of Australians to get back to Australia because Australia only lets in so many per day. And at least not so long ago this waiting list was not days or weeks but many months
(BTW, not personally advocating this, but it certainly exists)
And you can bet that most of those “Stranded Citizens” are in fact Dual Citizens, who would be using the Australian Passport to leave and Enter Australia, and the other one to enter that country. No doubt similar to the many Taiwanese who also have a USA passport, and hightailed it back to Taiwan when they realized that might be a better option if they caught the virus. Taiwan however doesnt restrict the incoming numbers, which Australia does as its all Hotel Quarantine (none at home) and there are only so many Hotel rooms available.
A coffee near our office also closed down the in service area, take out only. I hope that won’t become the norm. I like to relax with coffee after lunch.
Our Family Mart in Xindian still has seats.
A bunch of counties, like Penghu, Kinmen, and a couple in Taiwan, Miaoli I think have issued orders to their public employees, warning them not to go to Taoyuan. Me thinks they panic because they see too many news from China…or have other motivation… political.
The interesting thing is Taiwan has done better than the Aussies as far as COVID outbreaks. Sydney had the Air crew cases like Taiwan and the big one in Victoria was because the hotel system failed resulting far bigger outbreaks and in VIC a long lockdown so saying Taiwan should follow the system there does not seem like the best advice,
So what’s the solution? Are we supposed to be cautious about the current situation for the next couple of weeks while we wait to see what happens or doesn’t happen? Or are we supposed to bet that nothing bad will happen and go about our daily lives as if the hospital cluster doesn’t exist?
The reality is that we don’t know what’s going to happen. All we know is that an infected person who was quite possibly contagious spent 2 days working at a fast food restaurant serving customers and preparing meals, and that we don’t know who the customers are. And that a couple of other cases were out and about in the community while they were potentially contagious too.
Hopefully these people spread it to 0 others. But given that they were out there, the reality is that at least for the next few weeks, you can’t be 100% sure that the person behind you in line with the runny nose or hacking cough isn’t infected.
Telling people not to go to Taoyuan sounds more like stupidity than conspiracy. If the virus is spreading, it’s not likely to confine itself to Taoyuan, especially given the number of commuters there.
But also some of the most violent. Bit of a paradox I know but true. Talk to NZ social services and they can tell you stories of battered wives till the cows come home.
So how high is the chance that someone 20 days after infection develops symptoms so strong that he has to be treated at hospital? A CT value of 30 doesn’t seem like a false positive either. Seems much more likely he got infected here…
Taiwan should really do a trial run of 5000-10000 antibody tests or during contact tracing test for antibodies with close cases…
The 22 day rule makes sense as at the end of quarantine there is no mandatory test (antibody would be best IMHO for that, because testing errors highly unlikely) and asymptomatic cases would be isolated another 7 days.
Besides quarabining the 10 contacts of the Danish person, antibody test them… …
If some have both IG-M and IG-G the poor Danish got infected here and not back home… for contact tracing antibody tests are the gold standard, as you can see both current and recent infection…
Antibody tests are cheap. Xiamen intec tests are sold below 2euro wholesale per kit and have very high specifity (98%), and high sensitivity (94%). Other tests I don’t know their prices.
Some are not very good on sensitivity/specifity…
Or maybe better not, because than there could be some nasty surprises…
A lot of people are admitted to hospital 3 weeks after infection. Most don’t even show the first symptoms of infection until two weeks after they first get it, and then it develops or worsens over the next 1-2 weeks.
He is asymptomatic. He got a test out-of-pocket because it was required for flying home. Anyone who tests positive is isolated at hospital in Taiwan, symptomatic or not.
