Slowly, carefully, Taiwan is learning to live with Covid. On Thursday October 13, the country ended mandatory quarantines for people arriving from abroad, the official end of two and a half years of closure. About 48,000 Covid cases and 80 deaths are currently being recorded per day for a population of 23.5 million, its second largest wave after peaking at 80,000 daily cases in May. Taiwan is among the last countries in Asia to reopen its borders. Only China still applies an ultra-strict zero Covid policy.
Taiwan had already gradually reduced the number of quarantine days: initially from fourteen, it was increased to ten, then to seven in May and to 3 in July, each time accompanied by a few days of ” surveillance ” : obligation to take their temperature every day and avoid crowded places. This practice remains imposed on travelers for seven days.
In fact, the country remains particularly cautious: contact persons of positive patients are still required to isolate themselves for at least three days, and the number of arrivals on Taiwanese territory per week is still limited to 150,000, against 60,000 until at the end of September. A decision criticized by tourism professionals.
Mandatory mask
Above all, the country has not abandoned all restrictions: the mask is still compulsory in all public places, including outdoors, and it is worn with discipline. Even in gyms, most users wear it: “I take it off to climb, but I put it back on as soon as I get to the ground, out of respect for others”, justifies Mandy Chen, 35, a practitioner in a climbing gym in New Taipei City. While young people largely support dropping restrictions, older generations are divided. “My father lives his life without worrying about Covid, but my mother, who refused to be vaccinated, is still very worried”explains Ms. Chen.
This cautious approach is partly explained by Taiwan’s past success in containing the virus: in 2020, the independent island, whose sovereignty China claims, was the first state to alert the World Health Organization, the December 31, 2019, on the risk of human-to-human transmission, while China was still going to pretend for three weeks that the virus was not contagious. Authorities quickly banned arrivals from the mainland, then imposed a two-week quarantine on all travelers when the virus spread to the rest of the world. Result, for the year 2020 Taiwan had only 7 deaths linked to Covid, and its economy recorded a growth of 3% when the rest of the world plunged into recession.
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