Taiwan is reviewing an emergency use authorization application by Moderna Inc for its COVID-19 vaccine, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
The center had secured 5.05 million doses of the Moderna vaccine.
However, as Moderna does not have a branch in Taiwan, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has forwarded the documents provided by the company and applied to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an emergency use authorization, said CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman.
Photo: AP
The application is being reviewed by the FDA, he said.
Meanwhile, the COVAX global vaccine distribution platform has yet to inform the CECC about when it would deliver the first batch of the AstraZeneca PLC vaccine to Taiwan.
COVAX was supposed to announce a delivery schedule by late last month.
Chuang said Taiwan’s representative office in Geneva, Switzerland, made an inquiry on the matter with COVAX, upon the CECC’s request.
COVAX said it is still dealing with some issues and currently cannot inform each country when it would receive the first batch of vaccines, he said, adding that the delay is not solely targeted at Taiwan.
Separately yesterday, the CECC reported an imported case of COVID-19 — a Taiwanese student who returned from Poland.
The student traveled to Poland in September last year, returned to Taiwan on Jan. 28 and was quarantined at a relative’s residence without showing any symptoms, Chuang said.
The student on Feb. 12 returned to his home to undergo self-health management, he added.
He underwent a paid polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test at a hospital on Friday, as he was planning to return to Poland for study, and the test result came back positive the same day, with a cycle threshold value of 35, indicating a low viral load, Chuang said.
The student tested negative in a second PCR test on Saturday, while his antibody tests came back negative for IgM antibodies and positive for IgG antibodies, so he likely contracted the disease a while ago in Poland, he added.
Taiwan has had 919 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 27 patients being isolated in hospital for treatment, Chuang said.
As of Saturday, the COVID-19 incidence rate in Taiwan is four per 100,000 people, while the global incidence rate is 1,473.5 per 100,000 people, said CDC Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩), head of the CECC’s disease surveillance division.
Taiwan ranked 186th among 193 countries with regard to incidence rates, and most of the countries with lower incidence rates have smaller populations than Taiwan, he said.
COVID-19 deaths per million in Taiwan is about 0.4, which ranks the nation 179th among 193 countries, he added.
The infection fatality rate in Taiwan is about 0.9, while the global infection fatality rate is about 2.2, which suggests that Taiwan has taken good care of its COVID-19 patients, Chou said.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
‘CROWN JEWEL’: Washington ‘can delay and deter’ Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan, but it is ‘a very delicate situation there,’ the secretary of state said US President Donald Trump is opposed to any change to Taiwan’s “status quo” by force or extortion and would maintain that policy, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Hugh Hewitt Show host on Wednesday. The US’ policy is to maintain Taiwan’s “status quo” and to oppose any changes in the situation by force or extortion, Rubio said. Hewitt asked Rubio about the significance of Trump earlier this month speaking with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) at the White House, a meeting that Hewitt described as a “big deal.” Asked whether the meeting was an indication of the
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
KAOHSIUNG CEREMONY: The contract chipmaker is planning to build 5 fabs in the southern city to gradually expand its 2-nanometer chip capacity Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday confirmed that it plans to hold a ceremony on March 31 to unveil a capacity expansion plan for its most advanced 2-nanometer chips in Kaohsiung, demonstrating its commitment to further investment at home. The ceremony is to be hosted by TSMC cochief operating officer Y.P. Chyn (秦永沛). It did not disclose whether Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and high-ranking government officials would attend the ceremony. More details are to be released next week, it said. The chipmaker’s latest move came after its announcement earlier this month of an additional US$100 billion
RSS