Taiwan says it will not follow mainland China’s ‘cruel’ Covid lockdowns

Premier Su Tseng-chang says the island will stick to its plan to gradually ease restrictions

Taiwan has seen a surge of infections fuelled by Omicron, but 99 per cent of cases have mild or no symptoms

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Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang said the island’s response had been “praised by the world”. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 11:39am, 1 May 2022

Mainland China’s lockdowns to control the spread of Covid-19 are “cruel” and Taiwan will not follow suit, Premier Su Tseng-chang said on Sunday.

Having controlled the pandemic with tough border controls and quarantines, Taiwan has been dealing with a surge in domestic infections since the start of this year, with some 75,000 infections driven by the Omicron variant.

But with more than 99 per cent of those having mild or no symptoms, a handful of deaths so far and high vaccination levels, the government has moved to ease restrictions as it seeks to gradually reopen the island of 23 million people to the outside world.

Mainland China, by contrast, has enacted tough lockdowns in Shanghai and tightened controls in Beijing.

Speaking during a visit to Taiwan’s Centres for Disease Control, Su said their pandemic-containment measures had been “praised by the world”.

“We will not lock down the country and cities as cruelly as China,” he said, adding Taiwan’s methods were “gradual”.

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