When the SARS pandemic hit Taipei in 2003, city authorities announced a dramatic lockdown of Heping Hospital to prevent the disease from spreading. Now, a day after authorities discovered two cases of COVID-19 at the hospital, local workers are worried the same might happen again.
Two specially chartered buses pull up to Heping Hospital in Taipei. They’re here to take more than twenty hospital staff to quarantine, after two patients were confirmed with COVID-19.
Meanwhile in a restaurant opposite the hospital, a deep cleaning operation is underway. Heping Hospital was the center of a SARS outbreak 18 years ago. And staff here worry that history is repeating itself. One business owner says he has cancelled most of his bookings from fear of spreading the disease.
Cleaning staff at a local business also fear for their safety. One woman says she feels very anxious about working so close to the hospital. She says her daughter told her not to go to work.
Heping Hospital is carrying out a three-day disinfection operation. The emergency room is closed, and outpatient services are by appointment only. From Thursday, no one is allowed in or out of wards B6 and B7, and no one can enter ward A6.
So far there’s no plan for a dramatic hospital lockdown like the one 18 years ago, but local businesses and residents are nervous indeed.