TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taipei’s new COVID-19 case report mechanism will go live on Monday (April 25) with the aim of streamlining case registration and preventing a breakdown of the public health system, city officials said.

Taipei Deputy Mayor Huang Shan-shan (黃珊珊) said at a legislative session that hospitals will dispatch an SMS message to patients once their PCR tests come back positive. The system will be connected with the city’s health department to ensure prompt reporting of new cases, per CNA.

She elaborated in a Facebook post that hospitals will provide home care instructions for COVID cases and those who test positive are responsible for filing online information regarding their locations, movement history, and contacts.

This allows for fast-tracked case reporting and reduces the burden of the city’s health services staff. With the capital recording over 1,000 new daily infections and 4,000 contacts, the government is adapting by pivoting to “tending the infected, urging contacts to self-test, and preserving the limited medical capacity,” Huang stressed.

Huang is concerned that a similar platform developed by the central government may not be put in place by May 7. Given Taipei could see nearly ten thousand new cases by then, the city is racing against time and is launching its own version on Monday.