image courtesy: Atlantic Council
Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) suspected human to human transmission of Coronavirus much earlier than WHO. Taiwan’s success in controlling COVID-19 has bolstered its global standing. Nations are expanding bilateral ties with Taipei to bolster their own COVID-19 responses. International communities are looking out for Taiwan’s access to WHO and other multilateral agencies to combat COVID-19.
Taiwan established its vigilant and self-established health system to address the issues associated with COVID-19 with its 23 million population. Taiwan ramped up production and issued them to citizens much earlier than the rest of the world.
Though the world’s corona death tool is steeping with elevated graph, Taiwan has recorded only 376 cases and 5 reported deaths as of 8 April 2020. The vast majority of Taiwan’s cases are of citizens returning from Europe or the Americas. In the month of March, Washington’s representative to Taipei issued a joint statement with Wu announcing increased cooperation including research and development, contact-tracing, and scientific conferences. The European Union is also working with the Taiwan government's Academia Sinica to develop a rapid test.
Since the outbreak accelerated in January, Japan, the U.S., U.K., EU and Australia are among those that have joined the call for Taiwan to be given access to the WHO. Taiwan officials want to be a member of WHO and UN agency’s global alert network and also to get access to multilateral institutions.
President Tsai Ing-wen has repeated a mantra she’s used before to highlight the country’s commitment to global issues like health and the environment: Taiwan Can Help.
She iterates that Taiwan’s willingness to offer solid medical and technical assistance in this crisis has a greater significance and the international community is slowly joining hands with Taiwan.
