FIVE THINGS ABOUT TAIWAN’S QUARANTINE

Taiwan’s compulsory quarantine for inbound passengers has been a vital first line of defence, and it appears to have worked. Despite being just 130 kilometres off the coast of China, the centre of the outbreak, to date it has only seen 440 cases and

seven deaths.

1

IT STARTS IN ARRIVALS

Howard Jyan, head of the government cybersecurity department, said the system begins at the airport when passengers fill out a form on their mobile phones and the details are fed into a centralized system. The country says it learned from the SARS epidemic not to trust data coming from China, and it also very quickly closed its

borders.

2

HEAVY-HANDEDNESS?

Each case from the airport is then assigned a social and health worker and a police officer. The social worker calls twice a day to check the person does not skip quarantine. If a phone is unanswered every 15 minutes for an hour, it prompts a home visit by the police. Being out of power or turning the phone off may trigger a notice to officials.

3

IT’S NOT JUST ON TV

Home isolation is enforced by base-station triangulation. If the phone travels more than 300 metres from home, the user and local officials receive an automated text message alert. The system is supported by the country’s five telecom companies. Just 1 per cent of alerts are false alarms, occurring because of weak rural signals or being high in a tall building, where the phone can pick up several signals simultaneously.

4 FLOUTING THE RULES WILL COST

Thinking of leaving the phone at home while going out for a drink? Bad move.

Monitors will find you, especially if you’re under quarantine orders, and send police to the bar, where they will check everyone’s ID — and can hand out fines

of up to US$33,000.

5 BUT WILL IT EVER REALLY STOP?

Monitoring is carried out county by county. The government has said each person’s data will be deleted at the end of the 14-day period, and the entire program will end when the pandemic passes.