While a nationwide level 2 COVID-19 alert is scheduled to expire on Monday next week, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) yesterday said there are no plans to make “drastic” changes to disease prevention measures until the nation’s vaccination rate reaches 60 percent.
However, minor adjustments could be made to restrictions, said Chen, who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center, including increasing the passenger volume for trains operated by the Taiwan Railways Administration and Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp, and allowing the use of shower facilities at sports venues.
As of Sunday, 42.63 percent of the population had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, the center said at a daily briefing in Taipei, while about 10.89 million doses had been administered, of which about 10 million were first doses.
Photo: CNA
Of the total number of doses administered, about 6.53 million were from AstraZeneca, while Moderna’s vaccine accounted for about 3.72 million, center data showed.
The remaining 640,662 doses were the vaccine developed by local drugmaker Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp (高端疫苗), the data showed.
The total number of doses administered per 100 people was 46.38, the center said.
Over the weekend, 98,905 doses of vaccine were administered, with the majority — 84,573 — being first doses of the Medigen vaccine, it said.
From Friday last week to Sunday, the center recorded 120 adverse events following vaccination, said Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the center’s spokesman.
They included 60 non-serious adverse events, eight deaths and 52 other suspected serious adverse events, he said.
Two of the deaths occurred after vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine, four occurred after vaccination with the Moderna vaccine and two occurred after vaccination with the Medigen vaccine, he added.
Asked whether people who did not receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as their first dose would be allowed to receive it as their second, Chen said that center experts believe that it would be “feasible” for people to receive a mix of the AstraZeneca vaccine and an mRNA vaccine.
However, when the mix-and-match approach would begin, and which groups it would apply to, would depend on the number of doses of vaccine that are received, he said.
As of 5pm yesterday, 3,294,037 people had expressed an interest in receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on the government’s online vaccination booking system at 1922.gov.tw, the center said.
Meanwhile, the center reported three new locally transmitted infections yesterday — two males and one female who are all residents of New Taipei City.
One of them had an onset of symptoms on Sunday, while the other two cases were asymptomatic, it said.
One had a known source of infection, while the others had unclear links with confirmed cases, the center said, adding that investigations were under way.
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