Taiwan is facing the 2nd coronavirus wave

In my post merely 3 days ago I wrote about how Taiwan is slowly losing grip on coronavirus containment due to human selfishness, and unfortunately I was right. In less than a week the number of infected doubled and we now have 100 confirmed cases. 21 of the newest 23 that were added today were imported by Taiwanese who came back after traveling around Turkey. This was the biggest single day increase in the country since the first case was reported on January 21, almost 2 months ago. As a consequence, the government barred all foreign travelers from entering the country (with few exceptions), while Taiwanese nationals who return have to go into 14 days home quarantine (source).

The outlook is bleak

I don't know whether we will weather this second wave, but I strongly hope we do. The Taiwanese government so far has been managing this situation extremely well and is enjoying a very high approval rating. But like we know from South Korea, it takes one ignorant person to not follow the regulations, be selfish and cause a massive spread. Life here is still relatively normal. Schools are open, so are restaurants and offices. I usually avoid going out anyway, but today I couldn't help it, I had to go out to clear my head. This whole situation is really affecting me very badly. So I decided to walk around the city district I live in. I left my residential area and went to a more commercial area, where you have all the famous food chains and a big metro station. It's just around 15 min by walk away from where I live. So I took some street photography, and not long after that an ambulance with a siren raced by at the intersection where I stood, and for a brief moment I saw the driver and his colleague: They had really scary masks and their whole head was covered in a plastic wrap. I was so shocked, I was paralyzed, and wasn't able to take the photo of them. The photo above was taken some 30 min later, and those two just had normal masks. Scary to think that a coronavirus case might be confirmed so close to my home, but I would not be shocked: This area is full of old people. I only hope and pray that the ambulances are just overly cautious, however I just can't feel safe in Taiwan anymore, despite all the right things this government is doing.

Life as we know it might soon be shut down in Taiwan as well.