How Taiwan held off Covid-19, until it didn't

Another pandemic will come. Here’s what we can learn from Taiwan’s efforts to fight this one.

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In December 2019, Taiwan‘s government learned that at least seven atypical pneumonia cases had been reported in Wuhan, China. Because of Taiwan’s proximity to China and the number of flights back and forth, it was expected to have the second-highest number of Covid-19 cases worldwide.

Instead, Taiwan has had one of the lowest Covid-19 death rates in the world. Thanks in part to a sophisticated digitized health care system and a mandatory two-week quarantine for all travelers, life in Taiwan went on with relative normalcy. But then, in May 2021, a new wave of cases complicated the country’s success.

So how did Taiwan, the ninth-most densely populated nation in the world, avoid a more severe spread of a highly contagious virus for so long? And what lessons can be learned from their response to the outbreak?

Correction: We omitted a credit to our Taipei-based producer, Clarissa Wei.

This video was made possible by a grant from the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund as part of our Pandemic Playbook series: https://www.vox.com/22403980/the-pandemic-playbook

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