Inside Taiwan during COVID-19: How they keep schools and businesses open
It’s almost life as usual for the Lin family of Taiwan during the coronavirus pandemic — with a few noticeable exceptions.
“We didn’t worry too much,” said Leeli Chang, who lives with her
husband, Terry Lin, and her daughter, Peggy, 8, in a suburb of Taipei.
The family, like many in Taiwan, continue to go to work, to school
and out shopping as normal since the COVID-19 epidemic, but now with
some precautions in place — like regular temperature checks and hand
sanitizer dispensers outside most public buildings, and many people
wearing masks.
Taiwan was hit hard by the SARS pandemic in 2003, but this time, the
government took swift and early actions when it first became aware of an
unknown pneumonia in Wuhan, China.
By mid-February, the territory had increased its mask and alcoholic
sanitizer production, introduced fines for raising the price of medical
supplies, and set cleaning standards for public areas like trains and
schools.
Taiwanese
children eat their lunch at school. They only take their masks off when
the dividers are up to prevent infection. (Submitted)
Both Canada and Taiwan reported their first presumptive cases of
coronavirus within days of each other in January, but by March they had
diverged sharply in the number of infections reported.
As of Saturday, March 21, there were only 153 confirmed cases and two
deaths, on an island with 23 million people that’s only slightly bigger
than Vancouver Island. That’s far fewer than Canada’s more than 1,000
confirmed cases and 12 deaths.
It’s shaping up to be a different experience for families in Taiwan compared to their Canadian counterparts.
“I think that every time we watch the news, it gives us the
confidence, like ‘you don’t need to worry too much,'” said Chang, when
asked about whether she and her family are concerned about the virus.
Leeli Chang with her daughter, Peggy Lin and husband, Terry Lin. (CBC)
In Canada, one family is trying to keep fears at bay.
“We’re really working hard to keep that out of the home.” said Louise
Gleeson, when asked a similar question about her family’s level of
anxiety over the virus. “As a parent, I’m really trying to stay
grounded, because if I let myself go too far ahead in my thinking, I do
feel the anxiety creep up.”
Gleeson lives with her husband and four children, aged nine, 13, 15 and 17, in Oakville, Ont.
How to keep kids safe in school during the pandemic
The school situations in Taiwan and Canada have been very different.
After an additional two weeks off during winter break, schools reopened
in Taiwan.
But every morning Chang says she and her husband take their
daughter’s temperature and report it to her school before she goes.
Their daughter, like all the kids, wears a mask all day — except at
lunch. At lunch, when she takes off her mask, she is protected from
infection with a plastic barrier.
“We have protective barriers for everyone,” said Chang, “During mealtime, they take it out to eat their lunch.”
‘The
videos of the empty shelves, they can really just get you going and get
you panicked,’ said Louise Gleeson, left. She and her family live in
Oakville, Ont. (Louise Gleeson)
Chang says her daughter’s school was one of the first in Taipei to
introduce the dividers. “The school also teaches them how to wash their
hands, every day.” said Chang.
Those measures have been in place since February, well before Canadian provinces closed schools.
Here, kids are home from school across the country. Ontario extended
its March break by two extra weeks, and the governments in Alberta,
Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and British Columbia have cancelled school
classes indefinitely.
That means finding a way to keep the children busy. For Gleeson,
assigning her kids one chore a day has helped. She’s got them
reorganizing kitchen cupboards, washing and vacuuming out the cars, and
going through old piles of toys and books, choosing which ones to donate
when this is all over.
Once the chores are done, everyone can have some fun. “We’re staying up far too late watching movies,” she said.
Gleeson said she feels fortunate that they have the tools they need
for at-home learning, when the time comes, but hopes schools aren’t
closed for long.
“Having four children at various grade levels makes the school
closures very daunting,” she said. “I would be so glad if our students
and educators could end the school year in their classrooms, but I’m not
pinning my hopes on it.”
Panic buying of hand sanitizer, cleaning supplies
Canadians across the country have seen surges in panic buying of masks, alcohol wipes and hand sanitizer. It’s got some people questioning supply chains.
Luckily for the Gleeson family, they stocked up on everything they needed several weeks ago.
“When you have four kids in a span of seven years which I [did], you
know how to be organized.” she said. “So I was stockpiled and ready to
go two, three weeks ago.”
But while Gleeson is prepared, she worries about her elderly neighbours who may not have had the means to plan so far ahead.
“I’m not feeling any panic as far as supplies and food goes at my
home, but I am feeling the panic of people out in the community and
worrying about that,” she said.
Like food and toilet paper, any Canadian who’s tried to buy hand
sanitizer in the last week knows that many pharmacies and grocery store
shelves have been wiped out for a while now.
To help curb people from hoarding supplies, the Taiwan government
announced jail sentences of up to seven years and fines of up to the
equivalent of a $200,000 Cdn for individuals or businesses who try to
profit by raising prices on disease prevention products, like hand
sanitizer.
“Initially, when people began to be aware [of the virus], there was a
shortage. It was difficult buying them,” said Dr. Mei-shang Ho, a
virologist and epidemiologist from Taiwan.
According to the Taipei Times, in mid-February, when alcohol-based
sanitizers were running low across the territory, the government
instructed two state-run manufacturers to increase their production to
meet demand. Stores selling the bottles have limited the amount people
can buy to one per person.
Peggy
Lin practices hand washing at her school. In Taiwan, schools opened
after taking an additional two-week break during winter holidays, unlike
in Canada where many provinces have cancelled schools indefinitely.
(Joyce Huang)
In Taiwan, most public buildings, like schools, train stations,
restaurants and apartments have automatic hand sanitizing dispensers
outside, with signs urging people to disinfect their hands before
entering.
“We try to deliver to those places that are needed, for example
schools or key government offices to make sure that places that need it
have sanitizers,” said said Jaushieh Joseph Wu, Taiwan’s minister of
foreign affairs.
It’s a stark contrast to Canada, where pharmacies across the country
are out of stock. Alcohol disinfectants aren’t the only cleaning
supplies in high demand in Canada right now. Many stores across the
country are sold out of things like disinfectant wipes and soap.
According to Chang, Taiwan has rationed the amount of cleaning supplies people can buy.
“Our government said you can buy one, only one that you can use at home. I don’t think it’s a problem for us.” she said.
“But you just need to go there and line up for a long time,” she
said, joking that she sends her husband, Terry Lin, to stand in line
Taiwan has face masks
“Taiwan had the foresight to create a large stockpile of face masks;
other countries or regions might now consider this as part of future
pandemic plans,” said Dr Benjamin Cowling, a professor at the school of
public health at the University of Hong Kong.
Taiwanese workers have screens so they can eat in isolation. (CBC)
The Taiwanese government took over production of surgical masks early
on, banning exportation and eventually bringing in soldiers to help
with increased production. They allocated certain amounts to retailers
and lowered prices to the equivalent of about 24 cents Cdn.
“Right now, we still need to go to the pharmacy to buy masks,” said
Chang. “We take a kind of ticket, a numbered ticket, and they tell you
what time you pick up the masks.”
In early February, the government announced a mask rationing system
where everyone gets a certain number of masks per week. That number per
person was bumped up in early March to three per adult per week, and
five per child under 13 per week. People can pick up their masks on
designated days of the week, depending on their health card number.
In Canada, a shortage of masks had health care professionals sounding
alarms weeks ago. Now, hospitals are keeping a closer eye on medical
supplies like masks because equipment has gone missing.
This sign in a a 7/11 store in Taiwan notes that these alcohol bottles are limited to one per person. (Submitted)
On Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the
government would help businesses that already make medical supplies to
increase their capacity, and help other manufacturers to buy equipment
so they can make things like masks, ventilators, and hand sanitizers.
Critics say measures like this could take months to implement and it’s
not yet clear if these supplies will be allotted for consumers, or only
for healthcare professionals.
Dining during the pandemic
In Taiwan, restaurants are open for business and the Lin family is still able to indulge a night out occasionally.
But for the Gleeson family those days are over — indefinitely. On
March 17, the Ontario government called on all restaurants and bars to
stop serving customers food and drink inside their establishments and to
offer instead only takeout and delivery during the COVID-19 epidemic.
All nightclubs, movie theatres and concert venues were also urged to
close temporarily to help stop the spread of the virus.
‘I really feel like we dropped the ball’
In addition to regular public service announcements broadcast and
available on the internet, the government is also cracking down on false
information. People found to be spreading fake news about the epidemic
could be fined up to the equivalent of about $142,000 Cdn.
“What we have done is working,” said Wu. “Taiwan’s experience is a successful one.”
Taiwan still has relatively few cases compared to Canada and, according to Dr. Ho, that’s because of their fast response.
“There’s no magic to it,” she said. “It’s just isolation and
quarantining.” “I think epidemic control is like a race to see who gets
the upper hand, the people or the virus.”
She says in Taiwan’s case, they started that race a lot earlier than
countries like Canada. Gleeson also doesn’t feel Canada has acted fast
enough.
“I really feel like we dropped the ball and again if I let myself
think about that too much I get on the worry train,” she said. “It’s
done but it’s disappointing and I hope we can learn some really big
lessons from how other places handled this and how we did not.”
Dr. Ho agrees. “I think it’s too late to talk about, you know, what
we’ve done,” she said, when asked what actions Canada should adopt from
Taiwan. “But yes, you still have to quarantine, you still have to
isolate your patients, etc. But, you know, across the whole environment,
people’s perception, it’s not going to be the same. Here, we are at
ease, but there, people are anxious.”
Wu thinks it’s not too late to change Canada’s approach. “For Canada
the cases are still few, so if the Canadian government takes the
whole-government approach like Taiwan… then I think the Canadian
government might come out less affected than those countries in Europe
or even in the United States, ” he said. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/inside-taiwan-during-covid-19-how-they-keep-schools-and-businesses-open-1.5505031
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