The seventh round of the rationing scheme for at-home COVID-19 rapid test kits is to begin on Tuesday, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced yesterday as it reported 40,316 new COVID-19 cases and 52 deaths from the disease.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the center, said the upcoming round would enable people to each buy up to six packages of tests, containing five kits each, for NT$500 per package.
The tests would be available at all 4,489 pharmacies contracted by the National Health Insurance (NHI) system, as well as 79 public health centers in remote areas, Wang said, adding that people would have to show their NHI card or residence permit when purchasing the tests.
Photo: CNA
They can also give their NHI card or residence permit to a friend or family member and have them buy the tests on their behalf, the CECC said.
People born in 1957 or before and people born on Sept. 2, 2016, or after would be eligible for a free package, it added.
Fifty-six of the cases reported yesterday were classified as imported, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) said.
The number of new local cases was 9.7 percent lower than on Wednesday last week, said Chou, who heads the CECC’s disease surveillance division.
Even though there seems to be a trend that daily new case numbers are falling, the numbers remain relatively high, he said, adding that people should stay cautious.
CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said that of the 52 newly confirmed deaths, two were women in their 30s.
One of them had multiple chronic illnesses, including liver cirrhosis and diabetes, Lo said, adding that she died of acute kidney failure and metabolic acidosis after contracting COVID-19.
The other woman had a chronic blood disease, he said, adding that she was admitted to hospital after testing positive for COVID-19, and died of multiple bacterial infection and septicemia.
The nation reported 204 new moderate or severe COVID-19 cases, including three children with multisystem inflammatory syndrome, he said.
They are a one-year-old boy and two five-year-old boys, all of whom have no chronic illnesses, he said.
They have recovered and were discharged from hospital, he said.
Wang said the US Department of State on Monday lowered the travel alert for Taiwan from level 3 to level 1, the same level as Japan, South Korea and Australia.
CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, said the center’s Web site this month started using a shortened URL using a system exclusive to government agencies, as the CECC seeks to help people distinguish its Web site from others containing COVID-19 information.
CECC news releases would from now on also use an URL beginning with https://gov.tw to facilitate safer and faster access to disease prevention information, Chuang said.
All official disease prevention sites would use the shortened URLs, he said, urging people to check whether COVID-19-related links contain gov.tw to ensure that they do no fall prey to scam or phishing sites.
Wang said an emergency use authorization review meeting on new bivalent vaccines adapted to the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of SARS-CoV-2 was to be held by the Food and Drug Administration later yesterday.
A CECC specialists panel meeting on plans to ease home isolation rules for COVID-19 cases to five days was held yesterday morning, but the specialists did not agree on whether to implement the plan, so the center would continue to observe the COVID-19 situation for another week before holding the next meeting, Wang said.
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