Starting today, travelers can buy masks at the nation’s international airports, with each person allowed to purchase a pack of three adult-size or five child-size masks for NT$50, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday.
As travelers without masks could pose a risk to the spread of COVID-19, they can buy them by presenting their passports, boarding passes or other travel documents at duty-free shops inside the nation’s international airports, said Chen, who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center.
For Taiwanese or foreigners with residency permits, purchases at airports would be logged into the government’s mask rationing database to prevent repeat purchases at local drugstores and pharmacies within a week, he said.
Photo: CNA
Duty-free shops would not make a profit from selling the requisitioned masks, because all gains would go to the government, he said, thanking duty-free shop operators — including Tasa Meng Group, Ever Rich DFS Corp, Ritzy Vision Co and Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor Corp — for contributing to disease-prevention efforts.
The quantity of masks supplied to each airport would depend on the number of arrivals, with the tentative weekly ration set at 70,000 adult packets and 10,000 children packets for Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport; 2,000 adult packets and 200 children packets for Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport); 1,500 adult packets and 200 children packets for Taichung International Airport; 500 adult packets and 50 children packets for Tainan Airport; and 3,600 adult packets and 200 children packets for Kaohsiung International Airport, he said.
In related news, Taiwan Machine Tool & Accessory Builders’ Association chairman Hsu Wen-hsien (許文憲) yesterday said that delivery of equipment for 32 additional mask production lines should be completed soon.
Hsu made the comments while inspecting the latest batch of equipment delivered by New Taipei City-based Chang Hong Machinery Co.
He said that Chang Hong is assembling 15 of the 32 lines, while NCM Nonwoven Converting Machinery Co, also based in New Taipei City, is in charge of the other 17.
To date, NCM has completed 13 mask production lines, with equipment for the final four remaining lines expected to be delivered by next week, he said.
To meet surging demand for masks because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Economic Affairs on March 5 announced that it would build 32 additional production lines, with delivery of the equipment expected to be completed by the end of this month.
The decision came after the Executive Yuan last month approved a plan to build 60 production lines to resolve a shortage of masks.
“Even if they operate at just 80 percent capacity, the 92 lines would be able to produce 9 million masks per day, which would be sufficient for domestic demand,” Hsu said.
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