Taiwan yesterday announced that it would donate 150,000 doses of the domestically developed Medigen COVID-19 vaccine to Somaliland as part of its continued assistance to the self-governing east African state to combat the pandemic.
The pledge was made after Taiwan Representative Office in the Republic of Somaliland head Wu Chen-chi (吳鎮祺) and Somaliland Minister of Health Hassan Mohamed Ali Gafathi signed an agreement at an event in Somaliand’s capital, Hargeisa, on Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a news release.
The donation is to be made as Africa faces a huge wave of cases of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs via CNA
Health authorities in Somaliland have granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Medigen vaccine, it said.
Medigen is the only domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine that has received an EUA from the Food and Drug Administration. Its rollout in Taiwan began on Aug. 23.
So far, no other country has granted Medigen an EUA.
Medigen’s COVID-19 vaccine is undergoing clinical trials in Paraguay and is to take part in the Solidarity Trial Vaccines platform, an international clinical trial platform launched by the WHO and other groups.
Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991.
It has offices in about a dozen countries, the Web site of the Somaliland Ministry of Foreign Affairs says.
It does not have formal diplomatic ties with any nation.
In February last year, Taiwan and Somaliland signed an agreement to establish reciprocal representative offices.
In October, Taiwan donated a batch of domestically produced oxygen generators to Somaliland.
Previous donations from Taiwan of protective equipment and test kits have proved a lifeline in the de facto independent territory of 3.5 million people.
“Taiwan has contributed more than 90 percent of COVID-19 supplies to Somaliland,” the Republic of Somaliland Representative Office in Taiwan said at the time.
Ali Gafadhi praised the quality of the supplies from Taiwan.
He promised to utilize the contributions to their fullest to combat the virus.
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION: The UK would continue to reinforce ties with Taiwan ‘in a wide range of areas’ as a part of a ‘strong unofficial relationship,’ a paper said The UK plans to conduct more freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. British Member of Parliament Desmond Swayne said that the Royal Navy’s HMS Spey had passed through the Taiwan Strait “in pursuit of vital international freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.” Swayne asked Lammy whether he agreed that it was “proper and lawful” to do so, and if the UK would continue to carry out similar operations. Lammy replied “yes” to both questions. The
‘OF COURSE A COUNTRY’: The president outlined that Taiwan has all the necessary features of a nation, including citizens, land, government and sovereignty President William Lai (賴清德) discussed the meaning of “nation” during a speech in New Taipei City last night, emphasizing that Taiwan is a country as he condemned China’s misinterpretation of UN Resolution 2758. The speech was the first in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. It is the responsibility of Taiwanese citizens to stand united to defend their national sovereignty, democracy, liberty, way of life and the future of the next generation, Lai said. This is the most important legacy the people of this era could pass on to future generations, he said. Lai went on to discuss
SECOND SPEECH: All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist the CCP, despite their differences, the president said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday discussed how pro-Taiwan and pro-Republic of China (ROC) groups can agree to maintain solidarity on the issue of protecting Taiwan and resisting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The talk, delivered last night at Taoyuan’s Hakka Youth Association, was the second in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. Citing Taiwanese democracy pioneer Chiang Wei-shui’s (蔣渭水) slogan that solidarity brings strength, Lai said it was a call for political parties to find consensus amid disagreements on behalf of bettering the nation. All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist
By refusing to agree spending increases to appease US President Donald Trump, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez threatened to derail a summit that NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte needs to run smoothly for the sake of the military alliance’s future survival. Ahead of yesterday’s gathering in The Hague, Netherlands, things were going off the rails. European officials have expressed irritation at the spoiler role that Sanchez is playing when their No. 1 task is to line up behind a pledge to raise defense spending to 5 percent of GDP. Rutte needed to keep Spain in line while preventing others such as Slovakia
RSS