The World Health Organization needs Taiwan.
Since the COVID- 19 pandemic began, there have been more than 40 million cases and more than one million deaths around the world. The virus has had an enormous effect on global politics, employment, economics, trade and financial systems, and has significantly affected the global efforts to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals ( UN SDGS).
Thanks to the united efforts of its entire people, Taiwan has responded to the threats posed by this pandemic through four principles: prudent action, rapid response, advance deployment, as well as openness and transparency. Adopting such strategies as the implementation of meticulous border- control measures, the production and distribution of adequate supplies of medical resources, the employment of home quarantine and isolation measures and related care services, the application of IT systems, the publishing of transparent and open information, and the execution of precise screening and testing, we have been fortunate enough to contain the virus.
As of Oct. 27, Taiwan has just 550 confirmed cases and seven deaths, out of a population of around 23.5 million. Meanwhile, life and work have continued much as normal for the majority of the population.
The global outbreak of COVID-19 has reminded the world that infectious diseases know no borders and do not discriminate along political, ethnic, religious or cultural lines. Nations should work together to address the threat of emerging diseases.
For this reason, once Taiwan had contained the virus and ensured that people had sufficient access to medical resources, we began to share our experience and exchange information on containing COVID-19 with global public health professionals and scholars through COVID-RElated forums, APEC’S HighLevel Meeting on Health and the Economy, the Global Cooperation Training Framework and other bilateral meetings. As of June, Taiwan had held nearly 80 online conferences, sharing the “Taiwan model” with experts from governments, hospitals, universities and think tanks in 32 countries.
Taiwan’s donations of medical equipment to countries in need also continues. By the end of August, we had donated more than 54- million surgical masks, 1.16-million N95 masks, 170,000 protective gowns, 600,000 isolation gowns, 35,000 forehead thermometers and other personal protective equipment to more than 80 countries.
To ensure access to vaccines, Taiwan has joined the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, and our government is actively assisting domestic manufacturers in hopes of accelerating the development and production of successful vaccines and bringing them to market as quickly as possible, in order to put an end to this pandemic.
To prepare for a possible next wave of the pandemic, as well as the approaching flu season, Taiwan is maintaining its strategies of encouraging citizens to wear face masks and maintain social distancing, and strengthening border quarantine measures, community- based prevention and medical preparedness. Furthermore, we are actively collaborating with our domestic and international partners to obtain vaccines and develop optimal treatments and accurate diagnostic tools, in order to safeguard global public health.
The COVID-19 pandemic has proven that Taiwan is an integral part of the global public health network and that the Taiwan model can help other countries combat the pandemic. To recover better, the World Health Organization ( WHO) needs Taiwan.
We urge the WHO and related parties to acknowledge Taiwan’s long- standing contributions to global public health and disease prevention and to firmly support Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHO. Taiwan’s comprehensive participation in WHO meetings, mechanisms and activities would allow us to work with the rest of the world in realizing the fundamental human right to health as stipulated in the WHO constitution and the vision of leaving no one behind that’s enshrined in the UN SDGS.