Lithuania will donate 20,000 doses of AstraZeneca Plc COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan, its government said on Tuesday, after angering China in March by saying it would open a trade representative office on the island this year.
The vaccines were donated after a June 15 request for help from Taipei’s mission in neighbouring Latvia, the Lithuanian health ministry said in a submission to the government. They will be transferred by the end of September.
“We’d like to do more, but we do what we can,” Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said during a government meeting that was broadcast in Lithuania.
Photo: Reuters
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) office hailed the donation, adding: “This friendship from the Baltic Sea is precious.”
Taiwan had given Lithuania 100,000 medical-grade face masks last year when the coronavirus pandemic was spreading around the world, he said.
Taiwan is trying to speed up a vaccination programme that has been hobbled by supply delays.
It got a major boost this month when Japan donated 1.24 million AstraZeneca shots, followed on Sunday by 2.5 million Moderna Inc doses from the United States.
Infection numbers are now falling on the island after a rise since last month.
Lithuania’s government said last month it would also donate 100,000 vaccine doses to Ukraine, 15,000 to Georgia and 11,000 to Moldova.
BAVI: Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan and others announced work and class closures today, with the storm expected to affect Taiwan through tomorrow The outer rain bands of Typhoon Bavi would begin affecting Taiwan today, with its storm circle reaching land this evening and its level-10 wind radius covering all of northern Taiwan by noon tomorrow, an official said yesterday. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued a sea warning for the storm at 2:30pm yesterday, advising of heightened danger in eastern areas and in the Bashi Channel south of Taiwan. Typhoon Bavi is expected to bring strong winds, extremely heavy rainfall and rough seas to Taiwan today and tomorrow, with the heaviest rain forecast for mountainous areas and sustained winds of up to 12 on
Typhoon Bavi was expected to have its strongest impact on Taiwan from last night through daytime today, with its storm circle forecast to reach areas from New Taipei City’s northeast coast to Yilan and Hualien counties early today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 6pm yesterday, the center of the typhoon was about 590km east of Taiwan’s southernmost tip at Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), moving northwest at 26kph, the CWA said. The storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 155kph near its center, with gusts reaching 191kph. It had a radius of 380km. A land warning, issued at 5:30am yesterday, remains in
Typhoon Bavi lashed Taiwan yesterday, injuring 113 people, prompting the evacuation of 14,605 residents and knocking out power in 234,481 households, the government said. Most of the injuries were due to people falling off motorcycles or bicycles due to strong winds and slippery roads, and others occurred during the typhoon preparations, Central Emergency Operations Center (CEOC) data as of 8pm yesterday showed. No fatalities or severe injuries had been reported as of press time last night. Due to flooding and landslide risks, 14,605 people had been evacuated nationwide, led by 5,182 people in Hualien County, 2,096 in Taichung, 1,700 in New Taipei,
APPLICATIONS: The robots are capable of disaster and firefighting response, autonomous navigation, swarm operations as well as underground tunnel inspections, the ministry said The Ministry of Economic Affairs is working with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and industry partners to create a homegrown program to develop four-legged robots to tap into the US$4 billion global robot dog market. The initiative aims to leverage Taiwan’s strengths in information and communications technology, semiconductors and precision machinery to build indigenous technologies and a non-China supply chain, the ministry said. Technology is evolving from robotic arms to wheeled, quadruped and humanoid robots with autonomous mobility capabilities, it said. Driven by rapid advancements in generative artificial intelligence (AI), visual recognition, sensors and high-performance computing, robots are now capable of
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