Being a ”developed” country and given the summer heat, isn’t there some law thingy somewhere saying comfortable indoor temperatures must be maintained?
I suppose. On paper.
Today it is nice. It is raining outside Sometimes part of the system kicks in. Otherwise…
Your scare quotes don’t change the fact that Taiwan is indeed developed.
Another presser today. Chen addressing the three rogue cases. Brief summary here:
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Japanese student. All contacts negative. The girl herself paid for an antibody test on July 17. Result was negative. Case closed.
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Thai guy. All contacts negative. The Thai authorities retested on August 3. Result was inconclusive. Case closed.
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Belgian guy. So far all contacts negative. Some tests still to come in.
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Another Japanese case. Arrived in Taiwan June 15, left August 1. Tested positive at Narita airport. Contact testing is underway.
40,000 persons leaving Taiwan and undergoing testing on arrival, three possible positive cases. Chen’s conclusion is that contrary to speculation this shows that there is very little if any virus in the community.
Ooh and the first question is do we quarantine the Government guys coming from the US. Chen says they’ll be required to test three days prior to departure. They’ll fly alone, they’ll be tested on arrival. They’ll stay within their bubble during their visit and any Taiwanese having contact with them will wear masks.
I wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole.
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This doesn’t sound like a small delegation or a small bubble. I do imagine that such a visit will take every precaution and that night market photo ops will be kept somewhat limited.
The Secretary will also give a major speech while in Taiwan to public health graduate students and alumni of the U.S. CDC training program, where he will highlight Taiwan’s constructive role in the international community, especially in global public health.
The Secretary will be joined by Ambassador (ret) James F. Moriarty, Chairman of the Board of the American Institute in Taiwan; Dr. Mitchell Wolfe, Chief Medical Officer of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Brian Harrison, HHS Chief of Staff; Garrett Grigsby, Director of the HHS Office of Global Affairs; and other members of the Administration.
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Indeed. Does anyone else remember it was the US CDC guys who got SARS while “observing”. Ended up with the whole Sheraton hotel in quarantine.
I know it is good press for Taiwan and all that jazz but why the heck do they have to come here?! Can’t we do a nice videoconference?!
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I’ve been vocal here that I think that Taiwan isn’t testing enough and that we have undiscovered positive cases walking around. Of course, I also do not believe that expanded testing would uncover thousands upon thousands of cases or that we are hiding bodies in the back streets of Sanchong (though do think that we would find lots of people with antibodies).
That said, the above is the best non-medical reason not to expand testing. I cannot imagine what would happen if we had something like 80 positive cases in a day even if every person was asymptomatic. Toilet paper and masks and instant noodles and produce gone. Beer selling on black market for 10x original price, businesses shut down, nobody traveling in or out for the next year.
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“Lessons from the U.S.: What Can Taiwan Learn from the Trump Administration’s Response to the China Virus?”
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Darn, here is my chance to get rich.
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Chen also said that one reason they don’t want to do compulsory testing at the airport is that for sure some people would test negative and then think they can skip out of quarantine since they “know” they don’t have the virus. But in point of fact some of those people could well be carrying the virus but have picked it up as recently as during their journey back, hence the negative test result.
On another note: there might also be a need for a diplomatic bubble around some VIPs that will want to return for Lee Teng-hui’s funeral. For sure there’s some senior Japanese statesmen wanting to come over.
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They just want to get a few rounds of golf in and visit Beitou hot springs to relive better times of the empire.
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I haven’t followed this closely but what are they doing for testing on arrival? I thought they were testing everybody who came in but that appears to have shifted? Are they requiring tests during quarantine?
Quarantine appears to have been relaxed as well as I’ve seen posts on Facebook saying that Airbnbs are taking people, have seen others post they have rooms for quarantined people to rent and saw somebody else say they were worried but have been able to stay with relatives during the quarantine. I know the en suite bathroom requirement, etc and haven’t seen people say they are going out but thought people were being tracked fairly closely?
If a person has recently come into Taiwan, they probably have been most likely to be exposed during the flight (including airports and transfers) and a test wouldn’t do anything for such situations.
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I think test results would show there are no cases here and calm people down. I’d rather know the real situation than having people imagine the worst scenario as they are starting to do now.
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I think it is unlikely, it would show a bunch of false positives, even on a population with zero cases. It’s why they don’t do it the number of infected cases in Taiwan is likely to be below the margin of errors of the tests (If you look at death per capita, Taiwan is more than 50 times lower than Hawai, the safest US state).
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Two tests during quarantine I think, i.e. you need two negatives to be cleared (and even then they strongly urge you not to mix with anyone for another week). People are being tracked closely but if you really wanted to get out you could. You’re not actually under armed guard after all. A bigger issue may be people coming round to visit you.
Regarding testing Chen did also say that they are going to increase testing a little and lower the criteria for administering a test. Probably like me he’s tired of arguing about it. 
Seriously if you watch those pressers you’ll hear every question ever raised in this forum, and they’re asked every single time in a hundred different ways. They’ll quote every expert with a divergent opinion, they’ll compare Taiwan to every other country around the world. They never stop. And for some reason the reporters are all women and all have annoying voices. What’s up with that?
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According to the Taiwan News, new regulations effective immediately require masks to be worn in the following places:
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Schools
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Places of worship
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Medical and health facilities
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Public transport
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Venues of entertainment (KTVs, sports centers, nightclubs, bars, amusement parks)
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Cinemas and concerts
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Markets (night markets, shopping malls, farmers markets)
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Large social events
Source: https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3981125
Guy
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The bars/nightclubs, night markets, and KTVs seems a bit optimistic.
Do they really expect that people are going to wear masks while drinking, eating fried food, and ̶k̶i̶s̶s̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶s̶t̶i̶t̶u̶t̶e̶s singing shitty songs?
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Don’t worry, the clubs and some other businesses will tell all the dirty foreigners to whip out their passports and show their entry stamp so the Taiwanese customers can feel safe from all the Taiwanese coming back from abroad with the virus.
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I dont get it. Since the Taiwan CECC experts think that quarantine is the best and no virus remains anywhere in the country worth testing for, why all this mask nonsense?
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CECC is not saying that there is no virus and want to stay one step ahead. It has always been a multi-layer strategy.
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