A new round of rationing of rapid COVID-19 tests is to start on Monday next week, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
The tests would still be sold in packs of five for NT$500, and would be available at 4,826 pharmacies and 79 district health centers across the country, the center said.
Each location would receive 117 packs per day to sell, up from 78 packs per day in the first round, which began on April 28.
Photo courtesy of the Central Epidemic Command Center
With a National Health Insurance (NHI) or Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) card, anyone regardless of age can purchase one pack of test kits per round. How long each round lasts is not announced beforehand.
The rationing scheme staggers the sale of the packs, with the last digit of a person’s card number determining when they can make a purchase. Those with card numbers that end in an odd number can purchases test kits on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, while those whose card numbers end in an even number can buy test kits on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
Anyone can buy the test kits on Sundays, the center said.
More information about sale locations is available on the Web sites of the National Health Insurance Administration, the Food and Drug Administration and the Federation of Taiwan Pharmacists’ Associations.
Families with children aged six or younger can still claim free test kits — the rationing program does not cancel that offer — even if they used their child’s NHI card to purchase test kits in the first round or use it to buy kits in the second round.
As of noon yesterday, 9,868,893 test kit packs had been sold under the rationing program.
The center reported 76,967 new local COVID-19 cases and 144 deaths related to the disease.
The death toll nearly exceeded the single-day high of 145 deaths reported on Sunday.
The 144 people reported dead ranged in age from nine to older than 90. Fifty of them were unvaccinated, while 135 of them had chronic illnesses or other severe diseases.
One of those who died was a nine-year-old boy. He had vomiting on Saturday last week, and lost consciousness the following day. He had no vital signs when he arrived at a hospital. His polymerase chain reaction test returned positive for COVID-19.
On Sunday, he was pronounced dead due to heart and lung failure related to COVID-19, the center said.
With his death, 13 children — the CECC defines a “child” as being 12 years old or younger — have died of COVID-19 in Taiwan.
The center said that 122 previously reported cases have developed severe symptoms, while 291 have moderate symptoms.
As of Wednesday, 1,970 of this year’s 2,093,540 domestic cases in Taiwan had been classified as severe infections, or 0.09 percent of the total, while 4,158 had been classified as moderate, or 0.20 percent of the total, CECC data showed.
In all other cases, people infected with COVID-19 had mild or no symptoms, the center said.
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