Free packs of COVID-19 rapid tests are to be offered to travelers at Kaohsiung International Airport and Kinmen’s “small three links” wharf from today through late next month, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said in a statement yesterday.
The four or five-test packs, which have been available to travelers at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport since Jan. 3, will be offered at Kaohsiung airport from 8am to 10:30pm daily and at Kinmen’s Shuitou Wharf from 9:30am to 6:30pm daily, the CDC said.
The offer of free rapid tests was intended to coincide with the busy travel season around the Lunar New Year, as well as a spike in COVID-19 cases in the past few weeks, it said.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan reported 538 severe COVID-19 infections for the week of Jan. 9 to Jan. 15, up 4.5 percent from the 515 cases reported the week before, CDC data showed.
The nation also reported 55 COVID-19-related deaths over the past week, up from 48 the previous week, it added.
The health agency urged the public, especially seniors, to get Moderna’s updated COVID-19 vaccine against the Omicron XBB subvariant, which has been available since Sept. 26.
Since that time, 99 percent of serious infections and COVID-19-related deaths in the nation involved people who had not received an XBB vaccine shot, the CDC said.
Over the past week, people aged 65 and older accounted for 79 percent of all serious infections and 90 percent of COVID-19 deaths, it said.
The small-three links refers to direct trade, postal and transportation services launched on Jan. 1, 2001, between Taiwan’s Kinmen and Matsu, and China’s Xiamen, Mawei and Quanzhou.
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