Taipei, July 13 (CNA) Twenty minutes after the postal service in Taiwan opened Monday for pre-ordering of the government-issued stimulus vouchers, they received more than 10,000 orders, according to Chunghwa Post Co.

The pre-ordering started at 9 a.m. on the Chunghwa Post website and its dedicated telephone hotline at 0800-700-199.

By 9:20 a.m. Monday, the company said, it had received more than 10,000 for the NT$3,000 vouchers. People who pre-order the vouchers via Chunghwa Post will not be able to pick them up before July 20, the company said, adding that such an arrangement was made to avoid long lines.

Starting Wednesday, however, the vouchers will be available for direct purchase at post offices across the country, once people present their National Health Insurance card or some other form of government-issued ID, according to Chunghwa Post.

Under the government's NT$50 billion stimulus program in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwanese citizens and their foreign spouses can pay NT$1,000 to obtain the NT$3,000 vouchers, which can be used to purchase a wide range of goods and services.

As of 10 p.m. Sunday, some 11.92 million people in Taiwan had applied for the government-issued stimulus vouchers via convenience stores and the website of the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, since pre-ordering began July 1.