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

BACKGROUND: 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. METHODS: 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. RESULTS: 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 < 0.1). CONCLUSION: The masks supply strategies has gradually escalated the number of face masks for the public, it not only has dominant decreased the barrier of acquiring face mask, but a fair supply for total population use of Taiwan.

Stockpile Model of Personal Protective Equipment in Taiwan.

The Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) has established a 3-tier personal protective equipment (PPE) stockpiling framework that could maintain a minimum stockpile for the surge demand of PPE in the early stage of a pandemic. However, PPE stockpiling efforts must contend with increasing storage fees and expiration problems. In 2011, the Taiwan CDC initiated a stockpile replacement model in order to optimize the PPE stockpiling efficiency, ensure a minimum stockpile, use the government's limited funds more effectively, and achieve the goal of sustainable management. This stockpile replacement model employs a first-in-first-out principle in which the oldest stock in the central government stockpile is regularly replaced and replenished with the same amount of new and qualified products, ensuring the availability and maintenance of the minimum stockpiles. In addition, a joint electronic procurement platform has been established for merchandising the replaced PPE to local health authorities and medical and other institutions for their routine or epidemic use. In this article, we describe the PPE stockpile model in Taiwan, including the 3-tier stockpiling framework, the operational model, the components of the replacement system, implementation outcomes, epidemic supports, and the challenges and prospects of this model.