HSINCHU, Taiwan, May 20 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) — National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) has recently begun to collaborate with Facebook and Harvard University in using big data to study the potential spread of coronavirus in Taiwan. This international collaboration is being led by Assistant Professor Hsiao-Han Chang of the Institute of Bioinformatics and Structural Biology at NTHU. The preliminary results indicate that the risk of local transmission is higher than long-distance transmission between counties and cities. Chang’s advice for the upcoming holiday is to stay at home and to avoid crowds.
Based on the results of another study she has recently conducted using mathematical modeling to assess the impact of wearing face masks, Chang strongly supports the Central Epidemic Command Center’s (CECC) decision to set up a system for distributing masks, since it prevents the hoarding of an item important for limiting the spread of the epidemic.