Soldiers disinfect Taipei train station as Taiwan faces a new wave of epidemic challenges. (May 18, 2021)
Taiwan officials say the impact of the new crown pneumonia outbreak on Taiwan’s economy and key semiconductor industry will be limited if it is contained in time, and are fully prepared to ensure chip plants can operate normally. In addition, Taiwan is negotiating with the U.S. on the purchase of vaccines for the arrival of more vaccines.
Taiwan’s success in combating the New Guinea virus outbreak is seen as a success story, especially in light of its close business and tourism exchanges with China. China was the first country to have an outbreak of the new strain of Coronavirus. Taiwan had gone 250 days without a new indigenous case last year.
Now, Taiwan, once considered a global model for epidemic preparedness, is facing its toughest test yet. Taiwan’s epidemic is heating up, with four consecutive days of local cases topping 100. Taiwan Central News Agency reported that Chen Shizhong, commander of the Central Epidemic Command Center, announced that schools at all levels in Taiwan will be closed from May 19 until May 28. Some schools in Taichung and Miaoli are closed until the 31st in response to the community infection.
The rapid rise of the new crown epidemic in Taiwan has sparked concerns about economic growth. Taiwan’s National Development Council (NDC) held a press conference on Tuesday (May 18) on “All-out protection for Made in Taiwan – Industry measures to prevent the epidemic”. NDC Chairman Gong Ming-hsin made a forecast on the extent to which the current epidemic will affect economic growth. He said that if the epidemic is controlled by the end of June, the impact on economic growth will be around 0.16 percentage points, which will have a very limited impact. And if the epidemic is not brought under control until the third quarter, the impact on GDP will rise to 0.53 percentage points.
Taiwan’s economy grew at its fastest pace in more than a decade in the first three months of 2021, Reuters reports, because the “work-from-home” boom has triggered strong global demand for Taiwan’s high-tech products, especially chip exports. The government of the Republic of China has repeatedly said that the fundamentals of Taiwan’s economy remain strong.
At the same press conference, an official from Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology said technology companies have had a year to prepare contingency plans to deal with an increase in new cases of coronary pneumonia, including the implementation of a shifting work system. She said no contact is allowed between the major science parks where many of Taiwan’s chipmakers are located.
Reuters reported that TSMC, the world’s largest chip foundry, said on Monday it would adopt a tiered and hierarchical form of operation from Wednesday to minimize face-to-face contact between operational teams and minimize the risk of new crown pneumonia infection.
The global chip shortage that began late last year shows no sign of easing so far. As a major semiconductor manufacturing center in the world, it is important for Taiwan to quickly contain the current severe New Crown outbreak. In the long run, universal vaccination against New Crown is as important as epidemic prevention.
According to a Reuters report on Monday, only about 300,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been administered so far to Taiwan’s population of more than 23 million, and the vaccine is rapidly running out.
President Joe Biden announced Monday (May 17) that the United States is taking additional steps to help the world fight the new coronavirus pandemic. He said the U.S. will ship an additional 20 million doses of the vaccine to the world by the end of June.
Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported Tuesday that Taiwan’s representative to the U.S., Hsiao Mei-chin, said she is expressing her willingness to fight for this wave of vaccine releases to the U.S. and is “in the process of negotiating for it.”
Earlier, Hsiao said on May 14 that the vaccines currently being purchased by Taiwan include AstraZeneca and Modena, of which AstraZeneca has already delivered a small amount to Taiwan, and the vaccines produced by Modena Pharmaceuticals are expected to start delivery in June. Sources close to the situation told Reuters that the U.S. government is already helping Taiwan coordinate with manufacturers to speed up deliveries.
The latest outbreak announced by Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center on Tuesday (May 18) saw 245 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Taiwan that day, 240 local and five imported from outside the country, respectively; two new deaths were added to the confirmed cases.
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