Some folks are not persuaded we are already in “peacetime.” If you’re interested in the two sides of this position, have a look at this guy’s op-ed in the Taipei Times:
Guy
2 Likes
Have rasher words even been spoken? 
Guy
2 Likes
I don’t know. Let me get back to you after the next CECC presser.
Yes, and we unnecessarily suffer due to that.
I’ve already heard the other side and I disagree. I’m not someone who has always been against restrictions. In fact, I was fully for them when we had the Alpha outbreak and no access to vaccines last year. But, at the risk of beating a dead horse, things are very different now. We have a variant so mild that virologists say influenza may be deadlier (out of the hundreds of local Omicron cases we’ve had so far, how many have been serious or required hospitalization?). We have access to great vaccines that reduce risk to such an extent that it’s negligible. We also have businesses that need to be open and children that need to be in school and families that need to be reunited. Sorry that you don’t see that. I look forward to you coming around as most of us have over the past few months.
6 Likes
I don’t think you read that op-ed. It’s way more circumspect than that. But since you’ve already made up your mind and are now ready to welcome Han back as the guy in charge . . . I’ll leave it at that.
Guy
1 Like
What I said was more nuanced.
Hope he proves me wrong, but on COVID restrictions … playgrounds taped off for 8 months, and kindergartens arbitrarily shut at times… he seems very reactionary.
2 Likes
Yeah your man Chen Chi-mai has turned out to be the Hou Yo-yi of the south—a strict no-nonsense approach.
He’s up for re-election later this year. We’ll see how that turns out.
Guy
I think policies have already changed because Omicron is less lethal than the previous strains, and that’s why Taiwan hasn’t declared level 3 despite the number of new cases is already similar to the spread of Delta last May.
Since we are not at level 3, all that’s required is masks in public, report your visits to establishments, and stay in quarantine when you’ve shared space with people who tested positive for COVID.
Mask wearing decreases viral load intake and prolongs the time for a space to be filled with enough virus to infect other healthy mask wearers. The QR codes makes contact tracing easier. Quarantine slows down the spread of Omicron to avoid the medical system from being overwhelmed.
Taiwan’s Deaths/Million is 36, and Total Cases/Million is 821. Compare that to 2,831 dead out of 1 million population for the US, or the world average of 749.7 dead out of 1 million population, I think what Taiwan has been doing had worked to keep the population safe while minimizing impacts to the economy.
If enough people got their booster shot, I’m sure they can ease up on the quarantine as well.
6 Likes
Doesn’t the CECC toss ALL Positive cases into Hospital, whether they have symptoms or not?
Also regardless of whether you have a valid positive test, it seems.
If by toss in you mean doing quarantine in the hospital, then no.
I mean that anyone who tests positive is then admitted to Hospital until it is determined that they have recovered according to CECC criteria (which I think is 2 consecutive negative tests?)
How many days of zero deaths do you need to be convinced of the truth of this?
1 Like
I don’t mind the rules at all. I have two problems:
a) I feel stuck here and nobody in my family can visit.
b) There is almost no talk or realization related to the inevitable end game to this, which is that Omicron must eventually sweep through the population. Everyone will be exposed (meaning that some will not get Covid and some will be asymptomatic). Nobody talks of this inevitability here. There could be some negative implications to this, such as a return to level 3 when everyone freaks out.
7 Likes
According to the official flow chart, if the doctor deems you are safe to go home, where you can stay in self-quarantine in a room by yourself, without interacting with others living with you, then you do not have to stay in the hospital.
Currently, Omicron is already taking up all of the hospital and CECC’s monitoring capabilities, forcing people to go to quarantine hotels instead.
1 Like
They will probably wait until after the elections to let er rip so that they get the most votes this year for Taiwan being safe
4 Likes
The most recent deaths were reported on the dates below -
1/13/2022 - one death - was the Medical Evacuee from Vietnam.
12/19/2021 - one death - was positive during June/July 2021 and then released, died on December 1 from other causes - so 5 months after recovery!!.
12/15/2021 - one death - tested positive on June 3, was hospitalized for asthma on June 4 and isolated for treatment, confirmed on June 5, released from isolation on August 14, and died on November 19.
11/09/2021 - one death - tested positive on June 1, released in July, died from other causes on 11 October.
- so, effectively ZERO deaths in Taiwan from the Omicrom variant it seems.
5 Likes
Reads like how they’ve been counting a lot of COVID deaths in the U.S.
Dead from motorcycle accident. Body tested positive for COVID = death from COVID. ha
1 Like
Those elections are not due to be held until November ?
The CECC is already talking about loosening restrictions for business travelers in the midst of this current Omicron outbreak. When enough of the population received their booster jab, most travel restrictions will be removed.
2 Likes
Not just the USA - most seem to be counting like that - a positive test in the past X months gets included as a cause of death on the death certificate. So yes, if you get run over by a Blue Truck 3 months after you have tested positive and then later negative, your death under said truck is counted as a Covid death!! And if you had just been Vaccinated before the Blue Truck got you, then its a Vaccine death too. (Would your death get counted twice I wonder?)
And at one point the UK only counted deaths that occured in Hospital - so those who died in Aged Care homes didn’t get counted.