Coronavirus: how Asian countries acted while the west dithered
In Hong Kong and Taiwan, deaths are in single figures. But Europe gambled on a containment strategy
The first coronavirus cases in Taiwan and Italy came only 10 days apart. On Sunday Taiwan, which has deep cultural and economic ties to China, has recorded just 153 cases and two deaths. Italy has more than 47,000 cases and 4,032 people have died.
Italy's epidemic is currently the most devastating in the world; its death toll overtook China's last week and on Saturday officials in Lombardy said deaths in that region had jumped by 546 in one day to 3,095. The pattern of an exponential explosion in cases, after weeks of government inaction in the face of impending crisis, has been repeated across western countries from Spain, France and Germany, to the UK and the US.
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