Taiwan’s Cabinet and the American Institute in Taiwan have announced an event aimed at getting the private sector inventing new methods of fighting the spread of disease. The event is an extension of a Taiwan-US deal to partner in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
Present at the announcement Friday was Vice Premier Chen Chi-mai, Taiwan’s “digital minister” Audrey Tang, and Director of the American Institute in Taiwan Brent Christensen.
Chen said that programmers have played an invaluable role in the fight against COVID-19. He said that big data and information systems have also been key in Taiwan’s work to prevent the disease’s spread.
Tang said the event will center on six topics: managing community resources, transitioning to the world after the pandemic, protecting vulnerable groups, predicting future outbreaks with the lessons learned from this pandemic, supporting essential workers, and establishing proper date-driven risk communication.
Tang said that anyone can take part, though each team must include at least one person who works in medicine or public health. She said that project evaluations will happen remotely on May 18.
Meanwhile, Christensen said that Taiwan has performed remarkably well in the “5Ts” of prevention: transparency, transportation control, tracking, testing and technology. He said that Taiwan’s success in these areas has drawn worldwide attention.