Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday urged eligible recipients to receive a COVID-19 booster shot as soon as possible.
Only about 700 people had made an appointment through the city’s online vaccination booking system in the first 30 minutes after it opened at 9am yesterday, while there are about 100,000 city residents who are eligible, Ko said.
He made the remarks on the sidelines of a news conference in the morning announcing the results of a raffle for the city’s second round of stimulus vouchers.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
As the central government temporarily suspended the national online COVID-19 vaccination booking system, the Taipei City Government reopened its own online booking system, allowing people to make appointments on Monday and Tuesday, and get vaccinated between Monday and Friday the following week.
Ko said the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) recommends that fully vaccinated people receive a booster dose at least five months after their second dose, while eight types of immunocompromised people can receive an additional dose as part of their first vaccination cycle at least four weeks after their second dose.
As he believes in the expertise of CECC health officials, there should be no problems in following their recommendation, he said.
Ko said Taiwanese typically like to “jump on the bandwagon,” but as the local COVID-19 situation has eased, many people have become unaware of the importance of getting vaccinated.
“People could not care less when there is no local outbreak, but they start to complain and panic when an outbreak occurs,” Ko said.
Asked if gift or cash rewards would be offered as incentives to encourage people to get vaccinated, Ko said he is against the idea, because getting vaccinated benefits people’s well-being, and people should be responsible for taking care of their own health.
Taipei Deputy Mayor Tsai Ping-kun (蔡炳坤) later said that by 1pm yesterday, the number of people who had made an appointment through the city’s online booking system had risen to 1,368, including 584 who wanted a booster dose
The low booking rate might be because fully vaccinated people do not feel it is urgent to receive a booster dose or there are other ways to get vaccinated, such as walk-in vaccination stations, he said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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