離開
進入《TAIPEI TIMES》Experts tout the benefits of distancing
National Taiwan University College of Public Health vice dean Tony Chen speaks at a conference in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
‘NOT SARS’: The NTU experts said that COVID-19 is contagious at the early stage of infection, when symptoms are usually mild, so enhanced screening is a necessity
By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
A person with COVID-19 in a society that does not practice social distancing can transmit the virus to an average of 2.5 people in six days and about 400 people in a month, National Taiwan University （NTU） College of Public Health dean Chan Chang-chuan （詹長權） said yesterday.
In the past three months since the novel coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China, the virus has spread rapidly around the world, with more than 720,000 confirmed cases as of yesterday, but Taiwan so far has done a relatively good job of stopping community spread, Chan told a conference at the university in Taipei on ways to fight the outbreak.
Taiwan’s next step is to test people for the disease and separate them to reduce the risk of community spread, he said, adding that social distancing — maintaining a 2m gap, about two arm lengths, from other people — is also important.
“Besides strategies to contain the virus, Taiwan can adopt a ‘suppression’ approach by strictly enforcing the rules of social distancing to reduce most social interactions in cities,” he said.
“If people do not practice social distancing and maintain common social interactions, one infected person can transmit the virus to 2.5 people in six days, and if we still do not enforce restrictions, the virus can be transmitted to more than 400 people in a month,” he said.
If strict rules on social distancing are enforced, reducing direct contact among people by 75 percent, an infected person might only transmit the virus to about 0.62 people in six days and two to 2.5 in a month, significantly slowing the transmission rate, he said, adding that this was why such policies have been adopted in many countries.
Lin Hsien-ho （林先和）, director of the college’s Global Health Program, said that an analysis of confirmed cases in Taiwan and their close contacts from Jan. 15 to Feb. 26 that was conducted by himself and Centers for Disease Control physicians showed that people with COVID-19 can infect others seven to 10 days before the onset of symptoms.
The characteristics of COVID-19 are not the same as SARS, which becomes contagious about five days after the onset of symptoms, Lin said. COVID-19 is more contagious at the early stage of infection, when symptoms are usually mild, so enhanced screening measures should be taken.
College vice dean Tony Chen （陳秀熙） said that rapid testing should be deployed in Taiwan, as South Korea, Germany and the US have lower fatality rates than other countries after implementing mass screening measures.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
