TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang defended the island's health minister on Tuesday amid a rare uptick in domestic COVID-19 infections, saying that even if he were a god reborn on earth he could not protect against every eventuality.
Taiwan has kept the pandemic well under control because of early and effective prevention, including largely closing its borders. Most of its 1,154 cases to date have been imported from abroad, although Taiwan has reported sporadic domestic infections. Since last month Taiwan has recorded 28 cases linked to a hotel at the island's main international airport at Taoyuan outside of Taipei and crew at Taiwan's largest carrier China Airlines Ltd, with some infections occurring domestically.
Health Minister Chen Shih-chung has come under criticism, including from the main opposition party the Kuomintang, over a series of issues that could have worsened the outbreak, including not wearing face masks and allowing Taiwanese and foreign pilots to mix at a single hotel.
Su told reporters that despite strict government rules, not everyone adhered to the rules and it was impossible to be everywhere at once to ensure regulations are followed.
"A single Chen Shih-chung, even if he were a god reborn, would not be able to do it, and there is no way to see if every place has no breaches" in the rules, Su added.
The government is looking at which procedures can be tightened, Su said, pointing to Monday's decision to ban people entering who had been in badly-affected India.
Speaking separately, Chen thanked Su for his comments, adding that the key to fighting COVID-19 was mask wearing, hand washing, social distancing and getting vaccinated.
"These things are very important," Chen said.
Taiwan's total case numbers remain extremely small compared with those in many other countries, with only 75 people being treated in hospital. It has reported 12 deaths.
Taiwan stocks have swooned since the start of the week, partly on concerns about the rise in cases, dropping more than 3% on Tuesday morning.