Focus Taiwan
Date: 05/25/2020
By: Chen Wei-ting and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, May 25 (CNA) Taiwan is planning to lift a ban on surgical mask exports on June 1, but the decision will not be finalized until later this week, according to an official with the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).

Once the CECC has confirmed the volume of face masks it needs to requisition, it will finalize the plan to open up mask exports, likely later in the week, said Deputy Health Minister Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元), who heads the CECC's medical response division, on Monday.

At the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak, face masks were in short supply, and the government had to requisition the entire national mask production to ensure that medical facilities and consumers around the country had access to the product.

Taiwan instituted a rationing system in February that allowed people to buy two masks per week, then three masks per week and then nine masks every two weeks as mask production increased from about 3 million per day to about 18 million per day.    [FULL  STIORY]