【Notice No.14】DO NOT Travel while the Pandemic is at Its Peak; Avoid Returning Home for Dragon Boat Festival

(The following guidelines and professional medical advice are provided by Epidemiologist Dr. Chao-Chin Chang, a Distinguished Professor from the Graduate Institute of Microbiology and Public Health, NCHU.)

Dear All,

According to the epidemiological information announced to the public by the Central Epidemiological Command Center (CECC) recently, we are obliged to remind all faculty, students, and employees that there may be a third wave of the pandemic (The first wave was around 5/17; The second wave was around 5/24) approaching. In this new wave of local transmission, the percentage of confirmed cases among adults ages 20-39 has dramatically increased compared to the previous cases that were mainly among the elderly which highly corresponds with the previous epidemiological trend in Europe and the United States. Accordingly, the experiences of combating COVID-19 pandemic in other countries have revealed that the increase of confirmed cases among the younger adults was due to that most of frontline medical personnel are relatively young, and the fact that younger people compared to the elderly – are less likely tolerates long-term activity restrictions, and thus increases their private gatherings and outings. Furthermore, the identified strain of the virus in this wave is mainly related to severe illness and not limited to the elderly. We must be aware of the new epidemiological concept that younger patients could also develop a severe illness with related symptoms significantly.

Due to several unpredictable social behaviors that created “breaches” under the ongoing pandemic, it will take a very long period of time to control this situation by relying solely to traditional public health prevention (or concept) in view to the current pandemic severity ushered in Taipei City and New Taipei City as well as the medical capacity in Taiwan. However, if we lose our patience and fail to persevere with ONE HEART, the number of confirmed cases will rebound and rise even more severely. In this predicament in Taiwan, the best thing that we can do is to maintain our pandemic prevention at all times (i.e. wearing masks, washing hands thoroughly and regularly, staying at home) and to influence others to follow so that our individual prevention circles will gradually forge an enhanced circle that prevents COVID-19 virus from infecting our community and the country. As always, we must protect ourselves, our family, the university, and this society with CARE and EMPATHY.

Wishing you all a good health and safety!

For further information and notification of pandemic, please refer to the following link: https://www.cdc.gov.tw

Translate by Office of International Affairs, NCHU
*More Information: Novel Coronavirus(COVID-19) Epidemic Prevention Area