A batch of Novavax’s updated XBB.1.5 COVID-19 vaccine, with an expiration date of Aug. 31, yesterday arrived in Taiwan, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said.
The batch of of 462,800 doses is to go through lot release testing, before it is made available for people aged 12 or older on Jan. 9, at the earliest, it said.
Earlier in the week, the CDC said that people aged 65 or older and people with chronic diseases should get the vaccine for the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2 as soon as possible, as the number of COVID-19 cases has been rising in the past few weeks.
Photo courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control
In the week starting on Dec. 18, 326 new COVID-19 were reported, up from about 26 percent from the week before, the agency said.
Of those cases, 99 percent did not receive an XBB vaccine, which has been available since Sept. 26, it said.
Of the 37 COVID-19 fatalities recorded last week — up 16 percent week-on-week — only one of the deceased had received an XBB shot, it said.
Of all of the domestic COVID-19 cases recorded in Taiwan over the past four weeks, 73 percent had the EG.5 strain, followed by JN.1 at 9 percent and XBB.1.9.1 at 6 percent, the CDC said.
The XBB shots are effective in protecting against the EG.5 and JN.1 variants, it said.
As cases of COVID-19 and flu-like illnesses are rising and many people are expected to attend new year’s festivities, the CDC urged people to wear masks in crowded settings with poor ventilation or where social distancing is difficult to achieve, or when visiting elderly or immunocompromised people.
People should also avoid gatherings if they are experiencing respiratory symptoms, to avoid spreading disease, it said.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
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