The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said it is planning to let people who received the Medigen COVID-19 vaccine get additional doses of other brands of vaccine, and that people’s willingness to get vaccinated increased significantly last week after eligibility for a bivalent vaccine was expanded.
Tokyo on Tuesday last week reopened its borders to individual travelers who are required either to show proof that they have received three doses of a WHO-approved COVID-19 vaccine or present a negative test result from a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test taken before arriving in Japan.
As the locally developed Medigen vaccine has not been approved by the WHO, people in Taiwan who received the vaccine must get a self-paid PCR test if they plan to visit Japan, sparking criticism.
Photo courtesy of the Executive Yuan
The CECC previously said that people who were inoculated with the Medigen vaccine and need to travel to the US, where travelers who are not US immigrants or citizens are reqired to be fully vaccinated with a US Food and Drug Administration or WHO-approved vaccine, can receive additional doses of other WHO-approved vaccines, but not for those traveling to Japan, as they have the option of getting tested.
However, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), the CECC’s spokesman, said that the center was discussing a plan to allow people who have received the Medigen vaccine and are planning to travel to Japan to be eligible for additional doses of WHO-approved vaccines.
The plan is near final approval, he added.
Chuang also reported that compared with the weekly average of more than 200,000 doses administered in previous weeks, the number jumped to more than 460,000 doses last week after the eligibility for Moderna’s Omicron-adapted bivalent booster was expanded to people aged 18 years or older.
Chuang said he received the bivalent booster shot last week, while CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said he would get his shot next week and advised people who have underlying health conditions like himself to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
Chuang said there were 44,846 new local cases, 38 imported cases and 33 deaths yesterday.
The deceased were aged 60 or older, including 27 people who had chronic diseases and 24 people who did not receive a booster shot, CECC data showed.
Meanwhile, the Executive Yuan confirmed that Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), who received his second booster shot — the Medigen vaccine — on Sept. 21, tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday.
Asked about Su’s condition, Chuang said that as the virus continues to mutate, the main purpose of getting booster shots is to reduce the risk of severe illeness or death.
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