Taiwan has recorded 385 cases of COVID-19 to Australia's 6314. It began scrutinising and quarantining passengers on flights from Wuhan and Guangdong in December, implemented travel bans on China and introduced strict social-distancing measures in January. In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age from Taipei, Professor Su said Taiwan had always kept a step ahead of the information from China. Loading "When they say it seems to have human-to-human transmission, we have a sense that there must be a big human-to-human outbreak so we start ahead of the information," he said. "That is why Western countries suffer so much, even in Europe and the United States. They don’t have the experience of Taiwan."

Professor Su said Taiwan, which is regarded as part of China by the Chinese Communist Party, sent experts to Wuhan at the first sign of an outbreak in December. People wear face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus as they pray in Taipei, Taiwan. Credit:AP "We get not very transparent data based on their presentation so we make the decision that we should take a step ahead. It's almost impossible to have some real data from China." Taiwan initiated the response it had spent 17 years rehearsing, Professor Su said. "We are so close to China, Taiwan would be the first country suffering from any outbreak. We exercise hospital and control measures one to two times a year. The most important thing is the earlier the better for control measures".

Thirty dedicated public health physicians took over the health system and 1100 quarantine facilities were set up across the country. "We have had respiratory nursing homes for maybe 10 years. Usually in nursing homes we need lots of ventilators and we prepare for that purpose." Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Professor Su said there were also significant questions over the World Health Organisation's handling of the crisis amid allegations of Chinese political influence at the global health body. "Even WHO is always behind the real data," he said. "We use WHO and China data only as a brief reference, but we should prepare one step ahead."

China has strongly denied claims it has blocked the publication of Taiwan's health data through WHO. "It is untrue that information from Taiwan is absent," Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Friday. "Taiwan is part of China and Taiwan people are our compatriots." Professor Su, who has worked with WHO throughout his career said the situation was "very sad" because WHO had failed to co-ordinate a multinational response despite its many experts. "Usually they will call several expert meetings. Is there any human-to-human transmission? Is there any asymptomatic transmission?

Loading "Those data are very important for control, but we don't receive such important data from WHO this time." WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has accused Taiwan of perpetuating a racist campaign against his leadership and strongly denied any influence from China over the United Nations health agency. Taiwan is excluded from WHO because of China's objections to its membership.