With a critical shortage of rapid tests, combined with an impossibly high overload of PCR facilities, and government hotlines that don’t pick up the phone for days, increasing numbers of Taiwanese citizens question whether the CECC COVID numbers even approach the quantity of community spread.

The ability of the central government to keep pace with the rapidity of the spread in local infections is under question, even though the speed and scale out the outbreak were modulated by the government’s deliberate refusal to raise the restriction levels after cases crossed 100 a day weeks ago, in contravention of their own regulations.

With the lack of response from the central government, is seems increasingly likely that the DPP will face significant costs for its choices.