Strategies for supplying face masks to the population of Taiwan during the COVID-19 pandemic

The use of face masks has become ubiquitous in Taiwan during the early COVID-19 pandemic. A name-based rationing system was established to enable the population of Taiwan to purchase face masks. This study is to assess the extent and fairness of face mask supply to the public in Taiwan. The weekly f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC public health 2021-10, Vol.21 (1), p.1854-9, Article 1854
Main Authors: Liu, Chin-Mei, Lee, Charles Tzu-Chi, Chou, Shu-Mei, Ko, Hai-Yun, Wang, Jen-Hsin, Chih, Yi-Chien, Chang, Chia-Chi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 pandemic
Disease control
Epidemics
Face mask
Face mask supply
Heading: Face mask supply strategies in Taiwan
Humans
Masks
Name-based rationing system
Pandemics
Pandemics - prevention & control
Population (statistical)
Population statistics
Protective equipment
Purchasing
SARS-CoV-2
Social aspects
Statistics
Taiwan - epidemiology
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Summary:The use of face masks has become ubiquitous in Taiwan during the early COVID-19 pandemic. A name-based rationing system was established to enable the population of Taiwan to purchase face masks. This study is to assess the extent and fairness of face mask supply to the public in Taiwan. The weekly face marks supplies were collected from name-based rationing system administrative statistics included national health insurance card and e-Mask selling record. National registered population statistics by age, gender, and district were collected from department of statistics ministry of the interior. The number of COVID-19 non-imported cases of Taiwan was collected from Taiwan centers of disease control. A total of 146,831,844 person times purchase records from February 6, 2020, to July 19, 2020, the weekly average face mask supply is 0.5 mask (per person) at the start of name-based rationing system, and gradually expanded to the maximum 5.1 masks (per person). Comparing the highest weekly total face mask supply (from Apr 9, 2020, to Apr 15, 2020) in aged 0-9 -, 10-19 -, 20-29 -, 30-39 -, 40-49 -, 50-59 -, 60-69 -,70-79 -, 80-89 -, 90-99, and > 100 years to the register population showed similar distribution between mask supplied people and total population (all standardized difference 
ISSN:1471-2458
1471-2458
DOI:10.1186/s12889-021-11808-3