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.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS