Taiwan may soon count rapid test positives as confirmed COVID-19 cases
ROC Central News Agency
05/04/2022 04:42 PM
Taipei, May 4 (CNA) Taiwan may soon begin counting people in home quarantine who test positive for COVID-19 with rapid antigen tests as confirmed cases, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said Wednesday.
Up to now, only people who have tested positive using the more reliable but also more time-consuming polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test have been counted as confirmed cases, but Chen said the new policy could be launched in mid-May.
Chen, who also heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), said the introduction of the policy still had to take administrative procedures and expert opinions into consideration, but that discussion of the policy had almost reached a conclusion.
With COVID-19 cases surging to the tens of thousands per day, Taiwan's PCR testing capacity has been challenged, especially in the north where the outbreak has been more severe.
The figures do not include imported cases reclassified as domestic ones, nor retroactively removed cases. As of May 4, Taiwan recorded 176,224 domestic cases in 2022, while the total number of imported cases rose to 11,548 from 2,396 on Jan. 1.
That has led to the introduction of rapid tests so that people who may have COVID-like symptoms or come in contact with a person infected with COVID-19 can use them rather than a PCR test to quickly determine on their own if they may have the disease.
But rapid tests have also been in short supply and are currently being rationed by the government, and the process and the cost of a rapid test under the rationing plan have been criticized by opposition parties.
Main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) legislators have said COVID-19 rapid test kits in other countries are sold for about NT$40 (US$1.35) to NT$50 per unit, while those sold under the government program cost NT$100 a unit.
Chen, however, said the prices of rapid tests differ depending on their brands.
The rapid test kits sold under the rationing system are Roche brand tests, Chen said, adding that any price comparison should be made using the same brand.
The KMT argued Wednesday, however, that the CECC should provide rapid test kits free of charge to the general public.
Deputy KMT Secretary-General Wang Yu-min (王育敏) said at a press conference that the United States distributed 500 million COVID-19 rapid screening kits to its people and the United Kingdom let its people apply for two rapid tests per week, but Taiwan charges NT$100 per test.
Judging by this point alone, the U.K. and U.S. governments are stronger than Taiwan's, which is making money off the people, Wang argued.
Even in Hong Kong and France the price of a rapid test is less than NT$100, Wang said, calling that "an indisputable fact."
"Why can't the CECC provide free rapid tests rather than having people line up to buy them?" Wang asked.
"At this point in time when the COVID-19 epidemic is severe, it should give free tests so that Taiwanese will not feel anxious," she said, while also urging the CECC to increase the quantity of rapid tests available as soon as possible.
Economic Affairs Minister Wang Mei-hua (王美花) echoed the health minister's comment that the prices of the Roche and Abbott brand tests under the rationing system were less expensive than the same products elsewhere.
She said the cheaper tests reported in the media were all from China, citing information from Taiwan's embassies and missions abroad.
(By Kuo Chien-shen, Wang Yang-yu, Liu Kuan-ting, Tseng Chih-yi and Evelyn Kao)
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