A pharmacist in New Taipei City’s Banciao District hands a customer a COVID-19 rapid test kit yesterday. The Food and Drug Administration yesterday approved the first at-home saliva rapid COVID-19 test kit, after businesses applied to acquire up to 30 million of the South Korea-made products. The agency has so far approved 21 at-home rapid test kits, most of which use throat swabs or nose swabs to detect the virus, while the five saliva rapid test kits used in Taiwan must all be administrated by a healthcare worker. Pharmacies are allocated enough rapid tests to serve 78 people per day, and deliveries would continue throughout today to ensure supply, he said. The announcements came as the CECC reported 11,974 new domestic COVID-19 cases and two deaths.
