Starting from 2pm today, people can request the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on the government’s online vaccination registration system, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said during an online interview with Z Media (震傳媒) host Frances Huang (黃光芹) that the first batch of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, about 1.95 million doses, is expected to arrive by Tuesday next week or early next month.
Chen said he was first informed of the vaccine’s delivery in a call from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), adding that he also communicates with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) founder Terry Gou (郭台銘).
Photo: CNA
TSMC, Gou’s Yonglin Foundation and the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, have signed contracts with the government to act on its behalf to each purchase 5 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Later, at a CECC news conference, Chen said that the vaccine would be added to the online booking system.
Students aged 12 to 18 would be prioritized to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, while people in other age groups can book it from 2pm today, he said.
The center estimated that 1.2 million doses of the vaccine would be reserved for students aged 12 to 18.
If there are doses left after students are vaccinated, they would be made available to groups 1 through 10 of the center’s vaccination priority list, Chen said.
Asked if the availability of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine might affect the distribution of Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp’s (高端疫苗) locally developed vaccine, Chen said it is not the center’s concern, as its focus is on boosting vaccination coverage.
Meanwhile, a batch of 265,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in Taiwan from Seoul on a Korean Air flight at about noon yesterday.
The batch is effective until Dec. 7, Chen said.
The CECC on Oct. 30 last year signed a contract with AstraZeneca Taiwan to purchase 10 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, while the company has delivered about 2,674,000 doses, including the sixth shipment, which arrived yesterday, the center said.
The nation’s first-dose vaccination coverage had reached 41.51 percent as of Thursday, the CECC said.
About 10.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered, including 6.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, 3.6 million doses of the Moderna vaccine and 402,990 of the Medigen vaccine, the data showed.
Additional reporting by CNA
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