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.
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
RSS