Eligibility to receive a second COVID-19 vaccine booster is to be expanded to include adults aged 50 or older from tomorrow, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
Eligibility is to be expanded from people aged 65 or older, residents of long-term care facilities, immunocompromised or immunosuppressed people who are 18 or older, healthcare providers, and people working at ports of entry, said Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the center.
“The second booster shot should be administered at least five months — or 150 days — after the first booster shot, while people who have had COVID-19 should get the shot at least three months after infection,” Wang said.
Photo: CNA
The policy has been approved by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, he added.
From today, the center and local governments would begin vaccinations of children aged six months to five years with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, Wang added.
Local governments have been asked to arrange comfortable vaccination venues — avoiding exposure to sun or rain — that have enough space for social distancing and proper flow of people, he said, adding that evening or weekend sessions should be offered for the convenience of working parents.
Local governments are encouraged to contact the center if they need assistance with vaccination procedures, he said.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩), head of the CECC’s disease surveillance division, said that 26,943 new local infections and 253 imported cases were confirmed yesterday, as well as 57 deaths.
Of the 57 deaths, the youngest was a woman in her 40s who had rheumatic disorders and was on immunosuppressive drugs, said CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division.
The woman was unvaccinated and had coughing and shortness of breath for a few days before she died, but did not seek medical attention, Lo said.
She was found in a coma at home on Sunday and went into cardiac arrest before arriving at a hospital, where she tested positive for COVID-19 after emergency treatment failed, he said.
Regarding a previous case who tested positive for the Omicron BA.5 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2 — a woman in her 20s who had not traveled abroad in the prior six months — Lo said that genome sequencing was conducted on virus samples from her parents, but sequencing was unsuccessful, as their viral loads were too low.
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