Specific Responses

China

1.

China was able to enforce a mandatory quarantine, use AliPay and WeChat to track citizens, and color-code phones to show health status. These were all effective measures that led to lifting of lockdown restrictions after 76 days of isolation.

Taiwan

2.

Taiwan’s citizens understood Covid-19’s severity due to experience with SARS in 2003, and therefore the government was able to quickly and efficiently implement measures for social distancing. Taiwan also tracked cases’ contacts, provided a hotline for advice, and called to check in with people who entered the country. If those people did not respond, the government would go to their houses. Government transparency also instilled public confidence.

Hong Kong & Macau

3.

Hong Kong understood the severity because of experience with SARS. Although university medical professors spoke daily on TV and a deep saliva test was created to lessen crowding at clinics, there was not enough manpower to check on quarantining. Like many Asian countries, Macau had experience with SARS, and quickly shut down 80% of its economy to effectively stop the spread of Covid-19.

Italy & Iran

4.

As the Italian government realized that people were still traveling around and ignoring government warnings, they blocked travel between cities. To travel between cities, Italians had to fill out a form detailing the reasons for travel. Though Iran did not have strict social distancing rules, they did postpone payment of many bills -- both healthcare and utility. They did this out of concern for their struggling economy.