Representatives from several groups yesterday gathered outside the Centers for Disease Control’s office in Taipei to urge the government to protect the nation’s medical staff and resources as the fight against the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak continues.
In a joint statement, groups including the Taiwan Labor Union of Laboratory Medicine and Biotechnology and the Taiwan Young Pharmacists’ Group thanked front-line medical staff for “sacrificing themselves for the fight and defending the public from the threat of the novel coronavirus.”
“As users of the [National Health Insurance system], we know that this convenient and beneficial world-class healthcare service is the result of the healthcare system working together from top to bottom,” the groups said.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
“Since the outbreak of the [2019 novel coronavirus], Taiwan’s epidemic prevention system has faced a serious challenge,” they said. “Without the epidemic prevention personnel and various government agencies working together, Taiwan might have already become a severely affected area.”
The groups said that more than 220,000 people have signed a petition listing four demands to the government.
The petition calls on the government to guarantee that medical staff would have sufficient infection prevention supplies.
The government should be in control of who boards chartered flights carrying evacuees from China and give priority to citizens with “urgent needs,” and Taiwanese medical staff must be present on those flights, the petition reads.
The government should not be rash in chartering flights, the petition said, urging authorities to assess the nation’s healthcare capacity and to accept evacuees in “batches.”
The nation only has 1,100 negative pressure isolation rooms, the groups said.
Taiwan Young Pharmacists’ Group executive director Heyman Li (李懿軒) urged the public not to hoard surgical masks.
Leave supplies to those in greater need, such as front-line medical staff, he said.
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