The Establishment And Implementation of COVID-19 Entry Quarantine System in Taiwan；2020

The Establishment And Implementation of COVID-19 Entry Quarantine System in Taiwan；2020

At the beginning of the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in December 2019, Taiwan was the first country in the world to take border quarantine in response to the pandemic. With the rapid spread of outbreak from China, Hong Kong and Macau to other countries, Taiwan Centers for Disease Control monitored the pandemic trend in real time and implemented quarantine measures according to different risk levels, including issuing ''Entry Health Declaration'', ''Home Quarantine Notice'', and ''Self-health Management Notice''.In the early stage of the pandemic, the health status of inbound passengers and their contact information in Taiwan were collected using paper-based format, which required extremely time-consuming manual data entry. Because such procedure was prone to typing error and unfavorable for archiving and inquiries, the Information Security Division of the Executive Yuan, worked with the Information Department of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, established an ''Entry Quarantine System'' to overcome the aforementioned difficulties. The system sends a text message of quarantine issues through mobile phone to inbound passengers to confirm the contact, and to provide follow-up care in communities. In addition, the system improves the efficiency of collaborations between border quarantine measures and community epidemic prevention, as well as the data quality and accuracy. Such cross-system data sharing and a complete management mechanism effectively reduce the exposure risks of COVID-19 to the public.