Taiwan has successfully contained the domestic spread of COVID-19, but the world is still dealing with a serious pandemic. Health officials said as Taiwan prepares to gradually open up its borders, it wants to make modular negative pressure rooms so it can have the capacity to treat more patients.
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said on Tuesday that Taiwan is taking inventory of its medical equipment and personnel. It said that its next step is to prepare modular negative pressure isolation rooms.
CECC official Hsueh Jui-yuan said Taiwan’s medical system has been well-prepared and has 49 testing institutes. Taiwan also has 4,169 isolation wards, which are about 68% empty. He said they are looking for domestic companies that can make modular negative pressure isolation wards. That is what they are working on in the next stage of preparations.
Hsueh said the CECC's main mission is to slow the spread of COVID-19, safeguard Taiwan’s medical system and decrease the fatality rate. Hsueh said Taiwan’s medical system has been able to handle the outbreak so far and the fatality rate has been lower than the global average. He said they would continue to work to safeguard public health during the pandemic.