Policy Decisions and Use of Information Technology to Fight COVID-19, Taiwan

Abstract

Because of its proximity to and frequent travelers to and from China, Taiwan faces complex challenges in preventing coronavirus disease (COVID-19). As soon as China reported the unidentified outbreak to the World Health Organization on December 31, 2019, Taiwan assembled a taskforce and began health checks onboard flights from Wuhan. Taiwan's rapid implementation of disease prevention measures helped detect and isolate the country's first COVID-19 case on January 20, 2020. Laboratories in Taiwan developed 4-hour test kits and isolated 2 strains of the coronavirus before February. Taiwan effectively delayed and contained community transmission by leveraging experience from the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak, prevalent public awareness, a robust public health network, support from healthcare industries, cross-departmental collaborations, and advanced information technology capacity. We analyze use of the National Health Insurance database and critical policy decisions made by Taiwan's government during the first 50 days of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Keywords: 2019 novel coronavirus disease; COVID-19; SARS; SARS-CoV-2; Taiwan; communicable diseases; coronavirus; data sharing; electronic medical records; emerging infectious diseases; epidemic; health policy; national health insurance; outbreak; pneumonia; public health; quarantine; respiratory infections; severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; universal health care; viruses; zoonoses.

Figure

Timeline of policy decisions during the first 50 days of COVID-19, Taiwan. Blue text indicates cases in Taiwan. Information collected from Taiwan CDC, CDC, and WHO. Because of differences in global time zones, some events might be recorded or announced with 1-day discrepancy in different reports, news, and publications. CDC, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; CECC, Central Epidemic Command Center; COVID-19, 2019 novel coronavirus disease; NHI, National Health Insurance; Taiwan CDC, Taiwan Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; TOCC, travel, occupation, contact, and cluster; WHO, World Health Organization.