Focus Taiwan
Date: 02/28/2020
By:} Lee Hsin-Yin, CNA staff reporter
When Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) announced on Feb. 3 that the Taiwan government would start a rationing system to cope with a face mask shortage caused by coronavirus fears, the relevant government agencies had only 60 hours to prepare.
They had to come up with a system that would work swiftly, effectively and equitably, allowing each buyer to purchase the allowed two masks per week.
"To be frank, were it not for the infrastructure upgrades and data management experience accumulated over the years in Taiwan, it would have been very difficult for the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) to roll out the mask rationing system so quickly," Chang Lin-chih (張齡芝), chief of the NHIA's Information Management Division, told CNA in an interview recently.
Under the rationing system that began Feb. 6, anyone can buy disposable surgical masks on Sundays at designated drugstores and pharmacies, once they present their National Health Insurance (NHI) cards, while on the other days of the week, sales are staggered based on the last digit of the ID number on the buyer's NHI card. [FULL STORY]