An order has been placed for more than 100,000 rapid COVID-19 test kits for workers at railway stations, post offices, airports and seaports through an interdepartmental procurement platform set up by the government, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) told a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday.
The committee had invited Wang to brief its members on how the nation’s mass transportation systems would maintain normal operations as the number of domestic COVID-19 cases continue to rise over the next few weeks. Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) was also asked to attend.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said workers at railway stations, post offices, airport and seaports are key personnel as they ensure that core infrastructure continue to operate amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
“Postal workers helped deliver masks in 2020, stimulus vouchers last year and now rapid test kits, and yet they have not received test kits to protect themselves from the spread of the virus,” Hung said.
Postal workers are also being blamed for the slow distribution of rapid test kits nationwide, Hung added.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications and the health ministry should ensure that rapid test kits are readily available to these workers, as they daily encounter random people while the number of new domestic COVID-19 cases has surpassed 45,000 per day, he said.
Wang said the health ministry had tasked a cargo carrier to deliver the kits, but the ministry had requested Chunghwa Post’s help due to the carrier’s limited delivery capacity.
“We have placed an order for more than 100,000 rapid test kits to be used by railway and postal workers, as well as airport and seaport personnel,” Wang said, adding that the health ministry would distribute the kits to the transportation ministry once they became available.
The ministry is also considering offering rapid test kits to bus drivers, he added.
In related news, more than 300 members of the Pilots Union Taoyuan and their families are to demonstrate outside the Central Epidemic Command Center today to protest pilots being prohibited from taking a rapid COVID-19 test instead of quarantining at home.
On May 1, the center eased the quarantine rules for pilots by having them undergo three days of quarantine at home and four days of self-health management upon returning from a long-haul flight, rather than five days of quarantine and five days of self-health management.
However, the union said the policy “makes no sense at all.”
“Pilots can be dispatched on assignments while still under quarantine if they test negative on a rapid COVID-19 test, but if they do not get an assignment while in quarantine, they must complete the quarantine period,” Hung said.
“Pilots and flight attendants are asked to strictly follow the quarantine rules, although their risk of contracting the virus is low, while the center keeps relaxing domestic disease prevention rules amid a surge in locally transmitted cases,” Hung added.
Ninety-six percent of the aviation industry workers have received booster shots of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 98 percent of high-speed rail company employees and about 91 percent of bus company employees received three doses.
Eighty-two percent of the Taiwan Railways Administration workers have received booster shots, data showed.
“Over the past two years, the domestic COVID-19 outbreak was not as serious as in other countries, now the situation has changed. The quarantine policy for cabin crew members could be adjusted further, depending on changes in the virus situation,” Hsueh said.
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