The government yesterday welcomed the arrival of 150,000 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, the first batch of its order from the US pharmaceutical firm.
The batch, carried by a China Airlines Ltd (中華航空) cargo flight of Taiwan’s national carrier, arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at about 5pm, slightly later than the Central Epidemic Command Center’s (CECC) 3:50pm estimate given on Thursday night.
The flight departed from Luxembourg yesterday morning and stopped at Dubai before reaching Taiwan.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Prior to its arrival, many aviation enthusiasts on Facebook had posted images of flight trackers showing the plane crossing the airspace above India and Vietnam, avoiding China and Hong Kong, before finally landing in Taiwan.
“The American Institute in Taiwan [AIT] welcomes the arrival of the first batch of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, the first American vaccine to arrive in Taiwan,” the AIT wrote on Facebook yesterday morning before its arrival, adding: “We continue to communicate with Taiwan at all levels on this urgent issue.”
The US’ de facto embassy has been criticized for not assisting Taiwan with vaccine acquisition, since outgoing AIT Director Brent Christensen on Wednesday said that Washington had yet to finalize its standards for distributing its stockpile of vaccines, adding that Taiwan’s infection numbers were among the lowest in the world.
Meanwhile, a Japanese ruling party committee on Taiwan relations yesterday said it would recommend that the government supply a portion of Japan’s AstraZeneca vaccine stock to Taiwan to help it tackle a surge in infections.
“We should provide Taiwan with vaccines as soon as possible,” the head of the Liberal Democratic Party’s policy group, Masahisa Sato, told a news briefing following the meeting.
The recommendation is to be included in a set of proposals the policy group would give to Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi.
“Taiwan has many friends in Japan doing their best to help Taiwan in various ways. If there is any good news, we will announce it after it is confirmed,” Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs added that Taipei was seeking “like-minded countries to help obtain vaccines, and efforts have not ceased.”
In other news, in response to local government officials asking the central government to allow them to purchase vaccines independently through their own channels, the CECC yesterday released a set of requirements for applying to do so.
Local governments or businesses that intend to apply to import COVID-19 vaccines can ask pharmaceutical firms to submit vaccine rollout plans, instructions, storage and cooling logistics plans, manufacturing authorizations and documents that confirm a vaccine’s commercialization in other countries, the CECC said.
The applications would be reviewed by experts convened by the Food and Drug Administration, while use of the vaccines must abide by the CECC’s regulations, it added.
Additional reporting by Reuters
CONGRESSIONAL SUPPORT: A new committee would investigate a backlog of US weapons sales to Taiwan, said its chairman, US Representative Mike Gallagher The US should formally recognize Taiwan as an independent nation, and end its outdated and counterproductive “one China” policy, US Representative Tom Tiffany and 18 other US lawmakers wrote in a petition. “It is time to change the status quo and recognize the reality denied by the US government for decades: Taiwan is an independent nation,” Tiffany told the Epoch Times. “As our long-standing and valued partner, correctly acknowledging their independence from communist China is long overdue.” The resolution also asks the administration of US President Joe Biden to support Taiwan’s membership in international organizations and to negotiate a bilateral free-trade
The Pentagon is preparing for US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy to visit Taiwan later this year, Punchbowl News reported on Monday, citing an official directly involved in the talks. US administration officials anticipate McCarthy would visit Taiwan some time in the spring, the report said. McCarthy had previously pledged to visit Taiwan if he became House speaker. He was elected speaker earlier this month. He had also said that he would have liked to join then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s delegation when she visited Taiwan in August last year. Pelosi’s 19-hour visit to Taipei marked the first time in 25 years
GUT FEELING: In the leaked memo, US Air Force General Mike Minihan urged mobile command personnel to go to a firing range, shoot at a target and ‘aim for the head’ A four-star US Air Force general has warned of a conflict with China as early as 2025 — most likely over Taiwan — and urged his commanders to push their units to achieve maximum operational battle readiness this year. In an internal memorandum that first emerged on social media on Friday, and was later confirmed as genuine by the Pentagon, Air Mobility Command Commander General Mike Minihan said that the main goal should be to deter “and, if required, defeat” China. “I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me we will fight in 2025,” Minihan said. Minihan said that Taiwan’s presidential election
Taiwan’s Chou Chieh-yu (周婕妤) was crowned the Kamui WPA Women’s World 9-Ball Champion after shutting out British pool titan Allison Fisher 9-0 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the organizers said on Sunday. Following the championship win at Harrah’s Resort and Casino Atlantic City, Chou pocketed US$30,000 and became the first female competitor to hold both the 9-ball and 10-ball world titles since Briton Kelly Fisher in 2012. Chou, 36, won the Predator World Women’s 10-Ball Championship in Austria in September last year after clinching a silver medal at last year’s World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, in July. “I’m very excited and it’s like
RSS