Taipei residents who are eligible for the 12th round of COVID-19 vaccinations, but failed to book an appointment in the first phase can still book an appointment in the second phase, Taipei Deputy Mayor Tsai Ping-kun (蔡炳坤) said yesterday.
The 12th round covers people eligible for their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and second doses of the AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines. It consists of two phases, with phase 1 inoculations being administered from tomorrow to Wednesday next week, and phase 2 from Thursday next week to Nov. 3.
Booking for the first phase began on Monday for the BioNTech vaccine, and on Tuesday for the AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines. However, many Taipei residents complained that they could not find any available slots in Taipei shortly after the booking system opened at 10am on Monday.
Photo: Tsai Shu-yuan, Taipei Times
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Tuesday released a chart showing the vaccination slots offered by the six special municipalities for the AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, as well as the number of eligible recipients in the six cities, for the first phase.
The chart showed that the vaccination slots offered by Taipei would only cover 49.2 percent of the city’s eligible recipients of the AstraZeneca vaccine, while other cities would be able to meet between 59.57 percent and 100.46 percent of their eligible recipients’ demand.
As for the BioNTech vaccine, Taipei only offered 39.53 percent of the city’s demand, while other cities offered between 73.99 percent and 88.82 percent.
Photo courtesy of the Taipei City Government
Tsai yesterday said that the chart released by the CECC only showed part of the story, and has hurt the feelings of healthcare workers in Taipei who have worked so hard every day to vaccinate the public.
The CECC informed Taipei that there would be about 410,000 eligible recipients for phase 1, but Taipei can only provide about 273,000 slots during this period, he said.
However, as there would only be about 180,000 eligible recipients in phase 2, Taipei can provide up to about 330,000 slots, he said.
There would be enough slots for all eligible recipients in the two phases, and about 58,000 slots might even be left unfilled after the booking deadline, he added.
Taipei’s eligible recipients who could not book an appointment in phase 1 do not have to worry, as they can still book an appointment when booking starts for phase 2 on Monday next week, he said.
Showing a chart of the numbers of actual vaccination appointment bookings compared with the numbers of eligible recipients in Taipei from previous rounds of COVID-19 vaccinations, which ranged from 61.68 percent to 96.75 percent, Tsai said there has always been a gap between projected and actual demand.
It would be waste of healthcare and human resources if Taipei’s healthecare facilities were to open up so many slots and end up with a low booking rate, he said.
“We do not want to exploit healthcare resources or sacrifice the quality of healthcare services,” Tsai said.
He said Taipei can administer about 40,000 doses per day, but it would be unfair to ask healthcare workers to meet a spike in demand to 410,000 people in phase 1, then drop to about 180,000 people in phase 2.
Asked about the CECC on Monday afternoon providing an additional 45,280 vaccination appointment slots at five temporary vaccination stations in Taipei, Tsai said the city is thankful that the center acknowledged the problem and quickly stepped in to help.
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