The government could start offering COVID-19 vaccines by local drugmaker Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp later this month, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday.
Chen, who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), made the remarks at the center’s daily news briefing in Taipei.
The CECC on July 19 announced that the Food and Drug Administration had approved the production of Medigen’s COVID-19 vaccine — MVC-COV1901 — for adults aged 20 or older.
Photo: Yang Yuan-ting, Taipei Times
On Tuesday last week, the Medigen vaccine was added as an option on the government’s COVID-19 vaccination registration and appointment system 1922.gov.tw.
As of 5pm yesterday, 981,863 of the registrants indicated that they are willing to receive the Medigen vaccine, including 173,356 who said it is their only preferred brand, CECC data showed.
Two other COVID-19 vaccine options are available on the platform: Moderna and AstraZeneca.
On Wednesday, the nation administered 97,342 COVID-19 vaccine doses, CECC data showed.
A total of 8,607,387 doses — 8,170,117 first doses and 437,270 second doses — had been given as of Wednesday, the center said.
That translates into a first-dose vaccine coverage of 34.78 percent, or 36.65 doses administered per 100 people, it added.
Taiwan has 866,900 AstraZeneca doses and 658,000 Moderna doses remaining, said Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman.
Asked whether live-in foreign caregivers would be prioritized for COVID-19 vaccination, Chen said that there is currently no such plan.
People planning to travel abroad should look into their target destination’s COVID-19 rules on providing proof of vaccination, the CECC said.
They can use the COVID-19 Vaccination Record card issued by their COVID-19 vaccination site, which includes information in English and Mandarin, Chen said.
Alternatively, they could apply with travel clinics for an International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis, or request that their COVID-19 vaccination record be added to the certificate if they already have one, he said.
Thirty-two hospitals in the nation have outpatient travel clinics, the CECC said.
As a third option, COVID-19 vaccination sites may issue an English-language certificate of diagnosis specifying the COVID-19 vaccination record, the CECC said.
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