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.
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