Four Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) county commissioners and KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) yesterday issued an open letter to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) urging the government to allow counties and cities to negotiate their own purchases of COVID-19 vaccines.
The four local government heads are Hualien County Commisssioner Hsu Chen-wei (徐榛蔚), Nantou County Commisssioner Lin Ming-chen (林明溱), Yunlin County Commisssioner Chang Li-shan (張麗善) and Taitung County Commisssioner Rao Ching-ling (饒慶鈴).
Local governments should be allowed to negotiate independent purchases of vaccines via special projects, observing the same model as the YongLin Foundation, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, the letter said.
“It is concerning that Taiwan is unable to confirm the arrival date of the vaccines necessary for its first-stage vaccination program, while other nations are well on their way to implementing the next phase,” the letter said.
Taiwan has signed contracts to purchase nearly 20 million doses of vaccines — 5.05 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, 10 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and 4.76 million doses of unspecified brands through the COVAX initiative.
It has also signed contracts to buy 10 million doses of vaccines from two Taiwanese companies.
However, even with the latest donations from the US and Japan, the nation to date has only received 5 million doses of vaccine, while only 8 percent of Taiwan’s 23 million population has received at least one shot.
Pandemic prevention should supersede political differences and Chiang is willing to meet Tsai to discuss the KMT’s intent, the letter said, adding that “we hope that President Tsai will agree as soon as possible that such measures will unite the nation against the pandemic.”
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesman Liu Kang-yen (劉康彥) criticized the letter and accused the KMT of playing politics.
Some of the counties involved with the letter still have vaccines in storage, while DPP county commissioners are busy ensuring that their residents are receiving jabs, Liu said.
The Central Epidemic Command Center on Wednesday delivered new batches of vaccines to city and county governments, and another batch of vaccines is expected to be distributed by Monday next week, he said.
Chiang and the KMT county commissioners should focus on distributing vaccines to their residents instead of using vaccine purchases as a ploy to strengthen their personal political standings, Liu said, adding that if Chiang is so concerned about the situation, he should urge the four KMT county commissioners to increase their efforts to administer all the vaccines already in their stores.
Additional reporting by Lee Hsin-fang and CNA
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