TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — To prevent people from hiding their travel history when visiting the doctor and thus exploiting a loophole in the war on the Wuhan coronavirus epidemic, Taiwanese health authorities announced on Tuesday (Feb. 4) a new feature soon to be added to National Health Insurance (NHI) smart cards.

The ID cards currently contain users' medical data, allowing doctors to access health records, and users can enjoy affordable medical service as the country's National Health Insurance Administration reimburses their expenses when they present their cards at the billing counter.

However, the cards present no information about their users' travel history.

After the new feature hits the road, around 330,000 Taiwanese who have recently traveled to or returned from China, Hong Kong, and Macau will be made known to physicians, the administration said.

It added that this information could reduce misdiagnosis and at the same time lower physicians' risk of being infected with the novel coranavirus 2019-nCoV. Physicians and nurses can also make calls to the administration to query about travel history if a patient opts not to use their smart card.