Taiwan yesterday received its sixth shipment of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines, while another shipment of the vaccines, as well as a batch of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, are scheduled to arrive today, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.
Yesterday’s shipment of 889,200 doses arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on a China Airlines flight at 5:34am.
It is part of 15 million Pfizer-BioNTech doses ordered by three private entities — the Hon Hai Precision Industries Co-affiliated Yonglin Foundation, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, and the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation — and donated to the government for distribution among the public.
Photo courtesy of the CECC
As of yesterday, Taiwan had received more than 4.2 million doses of the vaccine.
Another shipment of doses of the same brand, as well as a batch of the Moderna vaccine, are scheduled to arrive in Taiwan today, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, without elaborating on the number of expected doses.
Chen said that with more doses arriving, the CECC might expand the eligibility for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to all members of the public aged 12 or older who have not yet received a first dose.
People aged 12 to 22 or older than 46, as well as people with serious or rare conditions, are currently eligible.
The expected Moderna vaccines would be administered as second doses and priority would be given to those who had their first Moderna shot before July 16, Chen said.
As inspections usually take about 10 days, Chen said he hopes that the newly arrived doses would be administered as early as Oct. 22.
To date, nearly 13.61 million people, or 58 percent of the population of 23.45 million, have received one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, but only 15.3 percent, or 3.6 million people, have had the two doses needed to be considered fully vaccinated, CECC data showed.
Chen on Wednesday told the center’s daily news conference that Taiwan would by the end of the year secure supplies of molnupiravir, an antiviral that US company Merck said significantly reduced the risk of hospitalization or death from COVID-19 during clinical trials.
The government has held talks with the drugmaker and is planning to import molnupiravir as soon as it has received emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration, he said.
Meanwhile, the CECC yesterday reported four new imported COVID- 19 cases, but no domestic infections or deaths.
Yesterday was the eighth consecutive day without a new domestic case, it said.
Meanwhile, a copilot working for a Taiwanese airline who had spent two days with her family before testing positive for COVID-19 was infected with the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, the center said.
The CECC listed the case as imported, but said that it is unsure whether she contracted the virus in the US or in Singapore.
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