The government expects soon to sign a deal for additional doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday.
“We are discussing a new contract” to obtain more doses of the vaccine and it is “likely to be finalized soon,” Chen, who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), told a news briefing, when asked how many doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are left.
Concern has been raised over supply of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine ahead of a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Thursday next week to discuss whether to authorize booster shots for the 12-17 age group and to start COVID-19 vaccinations for five to 11 year olds.
Photo courtesy of the Central Epidemic Command Center
Only the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been approved for the 12-17 age group in Taiwan.
Chen said there were still 230,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
As of Tuesday, the nation’s first, second and booster dose vaccination rates had reached 83.23 percent, 77.73 percent and 47.16 percent respectively, he added.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Meanwhile, the CECC yesterday reported three local cases of COVID-19 and 87 imported cases.
One local case is a woman in her 70s who sought treatment due to increased blood sugar levels and reported experiencing an altered state of consciousness.
The woman tested positive and was hospitalized.
She had high cycle threshold values of 39 and 35 in two tests, and also tested positive for antibodies against the nucleocapsid protein of SARS-CoV-2, indicating a previous infection, Chen said.
Contact tracing showed that the woman had visited a bank in Taoyuan, where many workers had tested positive in January, with the infections traced to an airport cluster, he said.
The two other cases are family members of infected elementary-school students, linked to a previous preschool cluster in Taoyuan, he said, adding that they tested positive upon ending isolation.
In related news, Chen earlier yesterday morning had a heated exchange with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) at a meeting of the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee.
KMT lawmakers protested at the meeting to review a policy on removing the ban on imports of food from five Japanese prefectures, with Cheng shouting at Chen that “800 people had already died from the [COVID-19] pandemic and you did not take responsibility” and that he “will not be held to account if more people die from consuming contaminated food.”
Speaking to reporters later yesterday, Chen said that linking Japanese food imports and COVID-19 deaths was going too far.
Healthcare workers have worked hard and done their best to save COVID-19 patients from dying, he said, adding that Taiwan’s death rate is lower than in many countries.
The COVID-19 death rate in Taiwan is 36 per 1 million people, compared with about 200 deaths per 1 million in Japan, South Korea and Singapore, and 616 deaths per 1 million in Hong Kong, he said.
The mortality rate in many developed nations is more than 10 times that of Taiwan’s, he added.
It is regrettable that about 800 people died of COVID-19 in Taiwan, but everyone had tried their best to prevent it, he added.
Additional reporting by CNA
A New York-based NGO has launched a global initiative to rename the nation’s overseas missions, most of which operate under the name "Taipei," to "Taiwan Representative Office (TRO)," according to a news release. Ming Chiang (江明信), CEO of Hello Taiwan, announced the campaign at a news conference in Berlin on Monday, coinciding with the World Forum held from Monday through Wednesday, the institution stated in the release. Speaking at the event, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Jie (黃捷) said she believed this renaming campaign would enable the international community to see Taiwan
DEFENSE: The US should cancel the US visas or green cards of relatives of KMT and TPP lawmakers who have been blocking the budget, Grant Newsham said A retired US Marine Corps officer has suggested canceling the US green cards and visas of relatives of opposition Taiwanese lawmakers who have been stalling the review of a proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion) special defense budget. The Executive Yuan has proposed the budget for major weapons purchases over eight years, from this year to 2033. However, opposition lawmakers have refused to review the proposal, demanding that President William Lai (賴清德) first appear before the Legislative Yuan to answer questions about the proposed budget. On Thursday last week, 37 bipartisan US lawmakers sent a letter to Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the heads
TOO DANGEROUS: The families agreed to suspend crewed recovery efforts that could put rescuers in danger from volcanic gases and unstable terrain The bodies of two Taiwanese tourists and a Japanese pilot have been located inside a volcanic crater, Japanese authorities said yesterday, nearly a month after a sightseeing helicopter crashed during a flight over southwestern Japan. Drone footage taken at the site showed three bodies near the wreckage of the aircraft inside a crater on Mount Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture, police and fire officials said. The helicopter went missing on Jan. 20 and was later found on a steep slope inside the Nakadake No. 1 Crater, about 50m below the rim. Authorities said that conditions at the site made survival highly unlikely, and ruled
The Grand Hotel Taipei on Saturday confirmed that its information system had been illegally accessed and expressed its deepest apologies for the concern it has caused its customers, adding that the issue is being investigated by the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau. The hotel said that on Tuesday last week, it had discovered an external illegal intrusion into its information system. An initial digital forensic investigation confirmed that parts of the system had been accessed, it said, adding that the possibility that some customer data were stolen and leaked could not be ruled out. The actual scope and content of the affected data
RSS