https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762689
Taiwan has huge flows of Chinese people, yet no outbreak. Maybe it’s a good thing they are not recognised by the WHO?
And before that they had plenty of people coming in from China with active Covid infections - returning from New Year including people from Hubei.
The US enacted their travel ban to China on 31st Jan, yet that hasn’t helped the US...
Now Taiwan is getting cases from other countries (returning citizens and foreign migrant workers) e.g. yesterday: “Meanwhile, the 15 patients deemed to have contracted COVID-19 overseas all returned to Taiwan in the period March 16-23. The countries they had visited were the U.S., the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Spain, Malaysia, Monaco and Mexico.”
Taiwan is still allowing foreign migrant workers to enter the country, as they need them for their economy.
IIRC, most early US cases came from Iran and Italy.
> There are also millions of Taiwanese that either live or work in the PRC
Taiwan has a population around 23.78 million. So you are saying at least 1 in 20 live or work in the PRC...
Of course Hong Kong has its own legal system and maintains its own customs and immigrations. However, mass epidemological response is carried out in accordance with the demands of mainland China, and so it is no surprise that Hong Kong is not being distinguished from mainland China as the OP expected.
Hong Kong seemed to have its own strategy, which makes sense, since it’s culturally unique to Beijing. Also of note, when Beijing published infection statistics, it excluded Hong Kong.
> Now, however, Hong Kong is providing a very different object lesson -- what happens when you let your guard down too soon. The number of confirmed cases has almost doubled in the past week, with many imported from overseas, as Hong Kong residents who had left -- either to work or study abroad, or to seek safety when the city seemed destined for a major outbreak earlier this year -- return, bringing the virus back with them.
Edit: Taiwan's case count is also low enough that they're still reporting updates using confirmed case numbers to track the spread from different cases.
These steps are more drastic than the "do nothing" approach we saw from some Western governments in the early days, but far less drastic that what those governments have had to resort to because they dropped the ball at the outset.
Some graphics and stats make this distinction more obvious--others sort of roll it all together.
1. They can make someone with a temperature wear a mask immediately, reducing transmission to others on the plane, and containing them on arrival.
2. It avoids crowding and possibly cross-contamination on arrival at a testing station.
3. It prevents delays for passengers.