The first group of 247 people from Wuhan returned to Taiwan last week but there are still more than 900 people hoping to come back. Medical workers are not happy with how China handled the first passenger list and have started a petition.
The first charter flight bringing Taiwanese back from Wuhan had three passengers that were not on Taiwan’s priority list of vulnerable people and non-residents of Wuhan. One of the three has tested positive for the new coronavirus.
Health Minister Chen Shih-chung says, “We want to save everyone, but we can’t sink our ship either. We need to make sure our ship is not leaking before we take care of our people in Wuhan.” He said, “We want to help but we need to make sure we are able to do so.”
Medical workers have started a petition to put prevention first. It says that Taiwan only has 1,100 spaces for people in quarantine. They only want Taiwanese citizens to board the charter planes. Experts must be on the plane to prevent the virus from spreading and there should be a limited number of charter flights.
What about Taiwanese who have coronavirus symptoms? Some have proposed a medical charter flight such as when Taiwan brought 15 H1N1 patients back from Korea in 2009.
Doctor Wang Shu-wei says that if there’s uncertainty over whether they have the coronavirus, that’s going to cause a lot of anxiety. But Taiwanese businessman in China, Kuo Jin-hsu, says the government should help out if it is able to do so.
There are over 900 Taiwanese still in Wuhan waiting to return.
President Tsai has said that the top priorities are prevention and management of the disease and helping vulnerable citizens return to Taiwan.