Surgical Mask Distribution System to Fight against COVID-19 Pandemic in Taiwan: A Minireview

Surgical Mask Distribution System to Fight against COVID-19 Pandemic in Taiwan: A Minireview

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is widespread globally thus far. All the governments have made every effort to render adequate medical service, supplies, and education to the general public to cope with the pandemic transmission. Wearing surgical masks is one of the essential non-pharmaceutical interventions means of containing the spray of SARS-CoV-2. Therefore, Taiwan adopted a name-based rationing system (NBRS) for the distribution of surgical masks. The NBRS aims to provide enough surgical masks to curb gouging prices and ensure that most people gain primary protection against droplet infection. Over 96.86% of the National Health Insurance Administration-contacted community pharmacies joined the program to support the policy introduced by the government of Taiwan. Therefore, community pharmacists (CPs) have engaged in the NBRS program and played a vital role in dispensing surgical masks. Although the NBRS program takes up a substantial portion of the business hours and brings in some gratuitous issues, the CPs still make their best endeavors to stand with the citizens against the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the successful implementation of NBRS in Taiwan, the public can obtain sufficient surgical masks to survive in the severe early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. For this reason, the article provides a comprehensive review on the detailed mechanism of the NBRS herein to learn the valuable experience in surgical mask distribution.