Public health experts have recommended that COVID-19 vaccines and other immunizations — including the influenza vaccine — be administered at least seven days apart, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
With the government expected to begin its annual seasonal influenza vaccination campaign next month, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, told a daily news briefing in Taipei that the recommendation had been made by members of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Previously, the ministry had required people to complete two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine before receiving other vaccines, he said.
Asked how the CECC would handle cases in which students aged 12 to 17 have a disagreement with their parents about receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, CDC Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩), head of the CECC’s disease surveillance division, said that a written consent signed by the student’s parents would be required for vaccination, although a student could also refuse the vaccine.
Relatively few COVID-19 vaccines were administered over the past two days, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC.
On Wednesday, 18,895 doses were administered, he said.
Of those, 10,627 doses were of the AstraZeneca vaccine, 7,732 were Moderna and 536 were Medigen, CECC data showed.
As of Wednesday, about 10.98 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in the nation — including about 10.05 million first doses and about 936,000 second doses, CECC data showed.
That translates to 42.8 percent of the population having received one or two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, or about 46.79 doses per 100 people, Chen said.
As of 5pm yesterday, the government’s online vaccine booking system showed that about 3.36 million people had selected the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as either a preferred COVID-19 vaccine or the only one they would be willing to receive.
A batch of about 930,000 Pfizer-BioNTech shots arrived in Taiwan yesterday morning.
It is currently one of four options available on the booking system, along with the AstraZeneca, Moderna and Medigen vaccines.
Asked whether there was a percentage of two-dose vaccination coverage the CECC hoped to achieve by the end of this year, Chen said that the matter would depend on the speed and quantity of vaccine deliveries.
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