Liu said that the university hospital, which said it needed 2,300 masks, received only 1,740 masks.
He also said that the Veteran's General Hospital in Taipei, which had requested 3,300 masks had obtained only 900 masks from the central health administration.
Meanwhile. an official with the DOH said yesterday that if the public takes reasonable precautious, such as frequent temperature-taking, there is no need for them to wear surgical masks.
Chen Tsai-chin (陳再晉), director-general of DOH's Center for Disease Control, made the remarks after a major local newspaper reported that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) did not wear a mask during an inspection tour the previous day that included a pep talk to medical care workers at a hospital.
The central and local governments have been sending out a mass of conflicting information on the necessity or requirement of wearing medical masks -- a practice which is not recommended by any health authority in the world, including the World Health Organization.
Indeed many experts believe that wearing a mask actually adds to the danger by trapping warm moist air around the nose and mouth of its wearer.
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