The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said that six applications had been received from groups hoping to purchase and import COVID-19 vaccines.
The center previously announced that Taiwan signed contracts to purchase about 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines: 10 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, 4.76 million doses from the global vaccine-sharing platform COVAX and 5.05 million doses of the Moderna vaccine.
Late on Sunday evening, the center said that on Friday last week, it signed contracts with local vaccine makers Medigen Vaccine Biologics and United Biomedical for the advance purchase of 5 million doses from each.
Photo: Hung Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
At least 15 million people, or 65 percent of the population, need to be vaccinated to effectively protect against COVID-19 and each person needs two doses, so a total of 30 million doses are required, the center said.
The surge in locally transmitted infections has prompted urgent demand for vaccines, leading local governments, businesses, civic groups and individuals to publicly express their intention to purchase vaccines.
On Friday last week, the center announced the documentation that local governments and businesses need to apply for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to import COVID-19 vaccines.
Yesterday, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the FDA had received four applications, while the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had received two, but that none of them had included the necessary documentation.
Ten agencies that media reports had said intended to import vaccines have not applied, he added.
“They would still need to apply for emergency use authorization (EUA) from the FDA, so the vaccine sources must meet the FDA’s requirements and the technical documents would need to be reviewed,” Chen said.
Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), who is deputy head of the center, said that representatives of the Fo Guang Shan Monastery in Kaohsiung, who last week said it planned to acquire up to 500,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and to donate them, visited the center yesterday morning to discuss the matter.
The center has assigned a contact person to the monastery, he added.
Chen Shih-chung said that it is better if the central government signs the procurement contracts with vaccine makers, because the government can ensure better legal protection, but the center is willing to discuss the matter with businesses or civic groups who insist on signing the contracts themselves.
The government is willing to step in and assist with legal matters because many of the vaccine makers are so far only willing to deal with governments, he said.
Regarding concern over domestic vaccines not yet in phase 3 clinical trials, Chen Shih-chung said that phase 3 trials can take a long time, but major COVID-19 vaccines — including BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson — received EUA and were used in rollouts before finishing phase 3 trials.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is expected to complete phase 3 trials in April 2023, but it was granted EUA by the WHO, the US and the UK in December last year; Moderna is expected to finish by October next year, but it was granted EUA by the US and Canada in December last year; and AstraZeneca is expected to finish in September, but it was granted EUA by the UK in December last year and by the WHO in February, he said.
The phase 2 trials for the vaccine candidates from Medigen and United Biomedical each enrolled more than 3,800 participants who took the two doses, which is considered an “expanded study” when compared with the studies for some major vaccines, he added.
The coast guard on Friday took a Chinese fishing boat and the 17 people on board into custody, after it rammed into a patrol boat while attempting to flee. A 100-tonne coast guard vessel at about 8am discovered a Chinese fishing boat illegally operating in waters about 11 nautical miles (20.4km) northwest of Hsinchu, the Hsinchu offshore flotilla of the Coast Guard Administration said. The crew refused to allow law enforcement to board the ship and attempted to flee, it added. The coast guard vessel and another ship chased the fishing boat for about a half hour, during which time the Chinese boat
Vice President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that Beijing was trying to “annex” Taiwan, while China said its recent series of drills near Taiwan are aimed at combating the “arrogance” of separatist forces. The Ministry of National Defense earlier this month said that it had observed dozens of Chinese fighters, drones, bombers and other aircraft, as well as warships and the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong, operating nearby. The increased frequency of China’s military activities has raised the risk of events “getting out of hand” and sparking an accidental clash, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said last week. Asked about the spurt
China’s Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong has asked foreign consulates in Hong Kong to submit details of their local staff, which is more proof that the “one country, two systems” model no longer exists, a Taiwanese academic said. The office sent letters dated Monday last week to consulates in the territory, giving them one month to submit the information it requires. The move followed Beijing’s attempt to obtain floor plans for all properties used by foreign missions in Hong Kong last year, which raised concerns among diplomats that the information could be used for
‘ABNORMITY’: News of the military exercises on the coast of the Chinese province facing Taiwan were made public by the Ministry of National Defense on Thursday Taiwan’s military yesterday said it has detected the Chinese military initiating a round of exercises at a bay area in coastal Fujian Province, which faces Taiwan, since early yesterday morning and it has been closely monitoring the drills. The exercises being conducted at Fujian’s Dacheng Bay featured an undisclosed number of People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) warplanes, warships and ground troops, the Ministry of National Defense said in a press statement. The ministry did not disclose what kind of military exercises are being conducted there and for how long they would be happening, but it did say that it has been closely watching
RSS