ANOTHER IMPORT: A Filipina who arrived on Friday to visit family developed a fever on Saturday and test results yesterday were positive, making her Taiwan’s 465th case

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 03, 2020
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

The government’s real-name mask purchasing system is to be continued until at least the end of the year, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported a new imported COVID-19 case from the Philippines.

The center would continue to requisition mask production to ensure people can buy masks using the real-name system until the end of December, said Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), the CECC’s spokesman.

While the CECC requisitions about 8 million masks per day to ensure there are enough for the real-name system, more than 10 million masks are produced per day for sale domestically or overseas, so people can also purchase masks from various retailers, he told the CECC’s daily news conference, after being asked about former vice president Chen Chien-jen’s (陳建仁) suggestion that each household have a mask reserve to last them three months.

Given that the COVID-19 pandemic is raging worldwide, Taiwan could face the challenges of low herd immunity, an increase in imported cases as border controls are gradually eased, the lack of a vaccine and the possibility of COVID-19 cases being mistaken for the flu during flu season, said Chen, an epidemiologist and public health expert, adding that having a mask reserve was a practical suggestion.    [FULL  STORY]