Taiwan’s COVID-19 Testing – In Numbers

CECC HQ in Taipei

Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) in Taipei has made public the methods and procedures behind treating those confirmed to be carrying the COVID-19 virus in the country.

In Numbers

In a statement by the CECC’s head of medical responses, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan, Taiwan’s overall capacity to carry out so-called expanded COVID-19 testing now stands at around 3,800 tests daily.

In reality, around 1,500 tests are actually being carried out each day now, although over 1,600 were carried out on Wednesday, April 8th.

Of late, the numbers of those tested has hovered around 1,000 a day.

CDC homepage screenshot

Over 160 hospitals nationwide are now allowed to perform tests on those suspected of carrying the virus with almost 200 hospitals currently capable of receiving patients depending on the severity of the infection.

The tests can be individually processed, and results analysed, at a total of 34 sites around Taiwan at present.

Most of these locations (16) are located in the north of the country, with ten in the south and seven other sites covering other areas.

Taiwan is currently able to allocate over 2,700 hospital beds for treatment of COVID-19 infected patients although the majority of these at present remain unused according to Hsueh.

Taiwan also has over 9,900 ventilators, although just 1,300 are currently available for use in treating COVID-19 patients. This number is expected to rise to around 2,200.

If needed, the number of beds available for patients could also be increased to almost 21,000 in the event a large scale COVID-19 outbreak occurs in Taiwan.

Social Distancing & Travel

For now, Taiwan is adopting increased social distancing measures with governmental advisories issued on travel, gatherings in certain areas, and for businesses that deal with customers in recent days.

Schools around Taiwan remain open, and many are currently going through midterm tests.

A number of private businesses are following government advice and asking employees to work from home if they went to popular tourist areas over the recent Tomb Sweeping holiday weekend, and others are already asking staff not to travel during the upcoming Dragon Boat holiday weekend in June.

Mark Buckton

Mark is a journalism vet of 20 years with most of those years spent in Tokyo, Japan, as a columnist for The Japan Times and numerous other publications. His work has appeared on CNN, in the BBC, NPR, and in several dozen other media forms and publications across five continents.