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Starting February 16 (Sunday), face masks to be purchased at local health centers in addition to pharmacies

  • Data Source:Centers for Disease Control, Ministry of Health and Welfare
  • Created:2020-02-15
  • Last Updated:2020-02-18

Starting February 16, 2020, face masks supplied under the name-based system can be purchased at 303 local district public health centers (shown in the attachment in Chinese) in addition to pharmacies, and rules of purchase remain the same as follows:

  1. Two masks can be purchased per national health insurance (NHI) card at a time at a price of NT$10. Each person is allowed to make a purchase every seven days. Another purchase can be made 7 days after last day of purchase. For instance, if a person buys two masks on February 16, he/she will be allowed to make another purchase after February 23 and so forth.)
  2. To reduce the queue for face masks, people whose ID numbers end with an even digit can buy masks on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, while Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are for those with odd-digit last numbers on their ID. On Sundays, anyone can buy masks. (Zero is an odd digit).
  3. Child size masks are only allowed to be purchased when NHI cards of children under 12 are presented (including those born after 2008 regardless of their birth months and days). People presenting NHI cards of children at the age of 13 or above are only allowed to buy adult face masks.
  4. People presenting NHI cards of children under 12 can choose to buy adult face masks or child size masks as needed.
  5. Only one purchase by proxy can be made per person. If a person does not buy masks for himself/herself, the person is only allowed to make one purchase by proxy and do so according to the abovementioned four rules.
  6. Foreign nationals without a NHI card can buy masks by presenting a valid Alien Resident Certificate and following the abovementioned five rules.