How did Covid slip through Taiwan’s ‘gold standard’ defences?

Island state went 253 days without a single local case but now the number of cases is rising sharply

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A worsening coronavirus outbreak in Taiwan has raised urgent questions about how the virus slipped past Taiwan's gold standard" defences, and if the country can quickly return to a zero-Covid life.

In 2020, the island state of 24 million people was producing extraordinary numbers: fewer than 1,000 cases, about 90% of them detected in recent arrivals, zero infection leaks from quarantine, a death toll of 12, and 253 days without a single local case.