Why cannot Taiwan be COVID-19 free?

Dear editor:

To the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Taiwan's national strategy was COVID-Zero. Previously we mostly isolated COVID-19 patients to the hospital until there were no spreading risks. We isolated travelers who visited Taiwan in hotels for fourteen days and with negative real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) examination of COVID-19. We had several small episodes of endemic COVID-19 infections but has been overcome. However, since March 2022, our government wanted to be more open to foreign businessperson as other countries, which included travel, economics, etc. We shortened the isolation day in hotels of travelers who visited Taiwan from fourteen days to ten days. Then the COVID-19 cases emerged, and our central government decided to co-exist with COVID-19 rather than COVID-Zero. Meanwhile, our coverage rate of a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccination accounted for only about half of our people in Taiwan. Our definite strategies of co-existing with COVID-19 were unsettled. The local governments were stunned by the central government's decision and had still used partial strategies of COVID-zero like find, test, trace, isolate and support (FTTIS). Not all patients were isolated in hospitals but in hotels or homes. Northern Taiwan was more rampant in COVID-19 infection than southern Taiwan now. It's the transition point of COVID-19 infection in Taiwan at the current time. The curve of COVID-19 was recorded as Fig. 1 . It really needs to think about that whether the economy or the health of people is more important. Can we be more prepared before opening our door to foreign businessperson? Maybe we could increase the isolation days from ten days to fourteen days? Maybe our booster dose of COVID-19 vaccination could achieve 90 percent before we open our door to foreign businessperson? It is an important issue for Taiwan's government to think about.

Figure 1

COVID-19 cases surged at recent days in Taiwan.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest relevant to this article.