People will be allowed to send up to 30 masks to family members abroad from Thursday next week, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday as it announced an easing of restrictions, including to allow people to buy up to nine adult masks or 10 children’s masks every two weeks.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that as domestic mask production has begun to meet demand, the restrictions were eased on mask purchases using National Health Insurance (NHI) or Alien Resident Certificate cards.
People will be allowed to send up to 30 adult masks, or about two months’ supply, to first or second-degree relatives living in other countries per mail package every two months, he said.
Photo: CNA
Taiwanese living abroad with NHI cards can preorder masks online and ask family members to collect and send them, or people in Taiwan can share their own masks, Chen said.
While there is a mask shortage in many other countries, the CECC encourages people not to waste them just because they are allowed to purchase more starting next week, he said.
“From April 9, for people’s convenience, the limit for buying children’s masks will be changed from five masks per seven days to 10 masks per 14 days, meaning people can buy the maximum amount for two weeks in one visit,” Chen said.
“The change to the rules on purchases of adult masks is proportionally greater, with the three-mask-per-seven-days limit rising to nine per 14 days,” he said.
The rules dictating which days cardholders can buy masks would be removed, meaning people would be allowed to purchase them on any day, but only one type of mask — those for adults or for children — could be bought at a time, he said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS