TY - JOUR AU - Lin, Cheryl AU - Braund, Wendy AU - Auerbach, John AU - Chou, Jih-Haw AU - Teng, Ju-Hsiu AU - Tu, Pikuei AU - Mullen, Jewel T1 - Policy Decisions and Use of Information Technology to Fight COVID-19, Taiwan T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2020 VL - 26 IS - 7 SP - 1506 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Because of its proximity to and frequent travelers to and from China, Taiwan faces complex challenges in preventing coronavirus disease (COVID-19). As soon as China reported the unidentified outbreak to the World Health Organization on December 31, 2019, Taiwan assembled a taskforce and began health checks onboard flights from Wuhan. Taiwan’s rapid implementation of disease prevention measures helped detect and isolate the country’s first COVID-19 case on January 20, 2020. Laboratories in Taiwan developed 4-hour test kits and isolated 2 strains of the coronavirus before February. Taiwan effectively delayed and contained community transmission by leveraging experience from the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak, prevalent public awareness, a robust public health network, support from healthcare industries, cross-departmental collaborations, and advanced information technology capacity. We analyze use of the National Health Insurance database and critical policy decisions made by Taiwan’s government during the first 50 days of the COVID-19 outbreak. KW - health policy KW - public health KW - emerging infectious diseases KW - communicable diseases KW - epidemic KW - outbreak KW - universal health care KW - national health insurance KW - pneumonia KW - quarantine KW - data sharing KW - electronic medical records KW - severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 KW - SARS-CoV-2 KW - SARS KW - COVID-19 KW - coronavirus disease KW - Taiwan KW - respiratory infections KW - 2019 novel coronavirus disease KW - zoonoses KW - viruses KW - coronavirus DO - 10.3201/eid2607.200574 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/7/20-0574_article ER - End of Reference