TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The COVID surge in Taiwan may have abated, but hospitals are seeing a rise in donated supplies for those working on the frontlines against the pandemic.
Chu Chien-hao (朱健豪), a social worker at the Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital in Taipei, said he’s tasked with distributing public donations to medical workers at special wards, emergency rooms, and vaccination sites. “There are so many that wish to donate they have to be scheduled,” said Chu.
A total of 370 donations for the hospital were recorded over just two months since mid-May, when Taiwan started to experience a rise in cases. In comparison, the number of donations was 100 for the whole year of 2020, wrote CNA.
The well-intentioned offers range from bento meals, handmade drinks, to fever cooling patches — which hazmat suit wearers are particularly grateful for. To avoid waste and improve distribution, Chu has even compiled a list of eligible beneficiaries.
In some cases, he has to dole out up to 400 bento boxes or 500 drinks in a single day to both medical and administrative staff, a scene he has likened to a military operation.
The passion and empathy demonstrated by the public is a far cry from the sentiment seen during the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic, a health crisis that saw widespread fear and discrimination against healthcare workers stemming from a lack of understanding of the virus, said Hung Tzu-jen (洪子仁), deputy superintendent of the hospital.
“No one is an outsider,” he said, adding the nation's people are standing together and giving their full support to those on the frontline battling COVID.
A Taipei resident donates bento meals to the Taipei Veterans General Hospital. (Facebook, Ning Yu photo)
