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11 COVID-19 outpatient clinics now operating in Taipei

ROC Central News Agency

05/04/2022 10:38 PM

Taipei, May 4 (CNA) The Taipei City government said Wednesday it has opened 11 COVID-19 outpatient clinics offering PCR testing and other services to people who have already tested positive using a COVID-19 rapid test.

The outpatient clinics at major Taipei hospitals, as well as a drive-through facility near Beitou Shilin Technology Park, can currently test around 5,540 people per day, the city's health department said in a press release.

In addition to PCR testing, the clinics also offer medical consultations and dispense medications for people who test positive, the department said, adding that people should only come to the clinics if they tested positive on a rapid test and have scheduled an appointment online.

At a virtual press briefing that afternoon, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said the hospitals were working to streamline the services, by setting up green pedestrian lanes to guide visitors to the clinics and allowing them to pay for medication with their EasyCards.

On Wednesday, Ko said, Taipei recorded 5,538 new COVID-19 cases and had 609 vacant spots out of a total of 1,545 beds in COVID-19 hospital isolation wards.

In order to meet rising demand, city hospitals will increase the proportion of beds they allocate to COVID-19 wards from 15 percent to 20 percent, which should raise the overall bed count to above 2,000, he said.

Vaccine rollour for school children

Also on Wednesday, Taipei reported that ahead of the city's COVID-19 vaccine rollout for children aged 6-12 on Thursday, around 30,000 parents had returned their children's vaccination consent forms.

Of the responses to date, 9,364 parents were willing to have their kids vaccinated at school, 1,296 were willing to do so at designated clinics, and 21,227 said they were not planning to have their kids vaccinated at this time, the city government said.

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.

Meanwhile, in New Taipei, which reported 10,151 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, the city government said 25,549 COVID-19 patients and 42,141 people who had been exposed to the virus were currently in home quarantine.

(By Tseng Yi-hsuan, Chen Yu-ting and Matthew Mazzetta)

Enditem/AW