Again Offering COVID-19 Handling Assistance, Taiwan Sends A Letter To The Chinese Authority

Illustration of COVID-19 in Beijing, China. (Wikimedia Commons/Pau Colomis)

JAKARTA - Taiwan has again offered assistance in handling COVID-19 to China, which is being hit by a wave of infections, although there has been no response from Beijing, Taiwan's official media reported.

China canceled strict COVID-19 controls last month following protests by the public, ignoring policies that have protected its 1.4 billion population from the virus over three years.

Victor Wang, Head of Taiwan's Center for Central Epidemi Command, told the Central News Agency it sent an email to Chinese authorities this week and asked how Taiwan could help address the spike in cases in China.

The increasing number of cases in China has sparked concern from the World Health Organization (WHO), highlighting the number of hospitalized patients, ICU hospitalizations, and particularly the death toll from the virus.

Wang said Taiwan had also emailed China in early December to "remind" authorities there about community outbreaks and severe cases among children.

Meanwhile, Health Minister 83eh Jui-yuan said Taiwan could offer treatment or vaccines to China, but it was unclear whether Beijing would accept them, according to the Central News Agency.

Earlier, in a New Year's address earlier this month, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen offered for the first time to give China "the necessary assistance", to help it deal with the spike in COVID cases, but said China's military activities near the island were not beneficial for peace and stability.

Taiwan and China have repeatedly debated their respective actions to control the spread of COVID.