The Diplomat
Taiwan, one of the countries that has best managed the covid-19 pandemic and is now experiencing an upsurge in cases that has led it to adopt measures it had not previously had to consider, has devoted special attention during its excellent management to the protection of front-line health personnel.
Despite its good results and its supportive contribution to the international community, Taiwan has not been invited to the meeting of the World Health Assembly (WHA), the highest decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), which is being held these days virtually.
In a publication by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (Taiwan) entitled “Health for all- Taiwan can help”, Taiwan’s Minister of Health and Welfare, Chen Shih-chung, discusses his government’s efforts to protect and support healthcare workers during the pandemic and calls on the WHO to abide by its “leave no one behind” principle and stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons.
Before the first case of covid-19 was identified in Taiwan on January 21, 2020, the Ministry of Health and Welfare of the Republic of China (Taiwan) acted quickly to protect healthcare workers. It did so by promulgating guidelines ranging from installing temperature detectors at hospital entrances to establishing proper procedures for providing staff with personal protective equipment.
As the minister explains, at the end of January last year the government proceeded to requisition supplies such as surgical masks, disinfectants and protective equipment to set up a distribution mechanism to ensure that such essential supplies reached every hospital in the country, so that frontline workers would not have to face the threat of the virus unprotected.
Another way of protecting its healthcare workers and thanking them for their dedication has been, according to the minister, to ensure that they receive ample financial compensation. Specifically, medical and nursing staff who deal with covid-19 cases are paid US$350 per day. And staff working at specimen collection points, set up in 205 hospitals across the country, receive US$25 for each case handled. In addition, public and private hospitals, medical facilities and health centers receive additional funds to support ongoing quality services focused on the pandemic.
Taiwan has kept covid-19 under control within its borders, allowing daily life to go on as usual during the pandemic. Now the authorities have been forced to take measures that had not previously been considered to contain the recent expansion of cases. Meanwhile, the minister argues, the country has been consistently denied membership in the World Health Organization for political reasons, creating a deep rift in the global epidemic prevention network and threatening global health security. Even so, the minister recalls, Taiwan has continued to provide medical equipment and materials to countries in urgent need, and to share with the world the “Taiwan model” for combating covid-19.
The minister stresses the need for the international community to express stronger support for Taiwan’s participation in WHO and all its activities. And he recalls that, as its slogan says, “Taiwan could help” to realize WHO’s vision of health as a fundamental human right and the UN’s pledge to “leave no one behind.”
