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 1,145 cases to date have been imported from abroad, although Taiwan has reported sporadic domestic infections.
Since last month Taiwan has been dealing with a cluster of 26 infections so far linked to a hotel at the island's main international airport in Taoyuan outside of Taipei, with pilots, hotel workers and their family members affected.