Taiwan firm donates COVID-19 rapid tests to country's allies

ROC Central News Agency

12/24/2020 10:30 PM

Taipei, Dec. 24 (CNA) TaiDoc Technology, a Taiwanese manufacturer of health monitoring systems and devices, on Wednesday donated 300,000 rapid screening tests for COVID-19 to Taiwan's diplomatic allies.

At a ceremony hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), the tests were accepted by Ambassador Jasmine Huggins of St. Christopher and Nevis, dean of the diplomatic corps in Taiwan, on behalf of the allies.

The 300,000 rapid screening tests donated by TaiDoc Technology will be shared among all of Taiwan's diplomatic allies, excluding the Holy See. The tests will also be given to Somaliland, a self-declared East African state that formally opened its representative office in Taiwan in September.

At the donation ceremony, Vice Foreign Minister Miguel Tsao (曹立傑) said screening remains an important preventative measure despite the growing availability of COVID-19 vaccines.

According to TaiDoc Technology Chairman Chen Chao-wang (陳朝旺), the rapid screening test, which can produce results in 15 minutes, has been certified by the European CE and Taiwan's Food and Drug Administration.

TaiDoc Technology, which donated 35,000 forehead thermometers and 250 automated temperature measurement systems to Taiwan's allies in April, partnered with Fora Care Foundation to make the latest donation.

Also Wednesday, MacKay Memorial Hospital in Taipei made a donation to one of Taiwan's diplomatic allies, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, for the establishment of a prosthetic limb workshop.

Under a project funded by Taiwan's International Cooperation and Development Fund and Teh Lin Pros & Ortho Inc., 100 sets of prosthetic components were donated to the Caribbean country.

At the donation ceremony, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Ambassador to Taiwan Andrea Bowman expressed thanks on behalf her country and said over 80 percent of the amputations performed at the main hospital there are linked to diabetes.

MacKay Memorial Hospital has been working closely with the St. Vincent and the Grenadines government since 2018 on a project to prevent and control diabetes in the country, she said.

"With a population as small as 110,000 (in St. Vincent and the Grenadines), every Vincentian, at home or abroad, is in some way affected by the painful reality of diabetes," Bowman said, thanking MacKay Memorial Hospital for its assistance.

(By Chen Yun-yu and intern Amber Wu)

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