People who get vaccinated against COVID-19 under a government-subsidized program would no longer have to pay administrative surcharges, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
The NT$300 (US$10.82) administration fee for the jabs would be waived from today, eliminating all out-of-pocket fees for government-funded COVID-19 vaccines, the center said.
On Saturday, the CECC said that the fee would not be covered by a NT$4 billion COVID-19 relief budget approved last week.
Photo: Ting Wei-chieh, Taipei Times
Part of the funding would be allocated to local governments for setting vaccine sites, it said.
Taipei and New Taipei City offer the subsidized jabs to medical workers, epidemic prevention workers and other workers at higher risk of COVID-19 exposure, while the rest of the nation only offers the free vaccines to medical workers.
As of Thursday last week, 678,418 doses had been administered nationwide, the CECC said.
Meanwhile, Tzeng Yi-suo (曾怡碩) and Chang Tun-cheng (張敦程), researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, in a report on Saturday said that the CECC should set up vaccination sites similar to military field hospitals or assign military personnel to conduct open-air mass inoculations.
The comments came after the CECC on Wednesday last week said that it aims to administer 1 million doses per week, and would therefore establish community inoculation stations, large-scale inoculations sites and outreach services.
Tzeng and Chang said that clinics and hospitals that offer vaccinations have said that they would have to establish a reservation system to avoid crowding, prompting the CECC and some hospitals to discuss the establishment of large-scale vaccination sites operated by hospital staff.
The report seeks to inform the CECC of how the military would set up field hospitals in the event of a chemical warfare attack, they said, adding that the contingency planning involves collection points, medical stations, transport and quarantine facilities.
The military could assist in conducting large-scale inoculations, they said.
Separately, the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation on Saturday said that it can provide 40 sites for outdoor inoculation and that it invited government officials to inspect them.
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