On Tuesday, Taiwan proudly reported zero new cases of COVID-19, marking the first time the country reported no new cases in over a month. 

In addition, this is the newest achievement for a system that first took action to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in December of last year.

Taiwan has only 393 confirmed coronavirus cases and six losses of life in a population of 23 million. 

The last time Taiwan announced no new cases was on March 9.

The country has been praised for its handling of the crisis despite being in close proximity to China. Millions of people are traveling between China and Taiwan each year, which also includes 2.7 visitors from China in 2019.

Due to it strict and timely response to the pandemic, Taiwan – much like South Korea and Hong Kong – was able to thus far avoid lockdown measures and keep many of its establishments open.

A piece published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in March praised Taiwan’s government with taking 124 actions to identify potential cases of the back then-emerging coronavirus. 

Some of the steps they took back in January featured lowering the price of protective masks and stopping their export. By January 24, the country was setting up coronavirus testing facilities in eight hospitals and the federal disease control center.

“Taiwan activated a response command center, sent a fact-finding team to China, imposed swift travel bans and quarantines,” as NPR reported in March.

Taiwan’s government also took strong measures to trace those who might be infected, or who came in contact with someone who was.

In just one day, the JAMA study stated, agencies in Taiwan merged peoples’ past two-weeks travel history with their public health insurance details, combining data from ID cards and from the immigration agency.

Taiwan graded those who traveled in accordance with their risk of infection based on the places they had visited. As per the researchers, those with the highest risk

“were quarantined at home and tracked through their mobile phone to ensure that they remained at home during the incubation period.”

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