People who want to get the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine in Taipei can make reservations starting today, Taipei Deputy Mayor Tsai Ping-kun (蔡炳坤) said yesterday.
Reservations for 25,000 Novavax doses can be made from 9am today on Taipei’s COVID-19 vaccination reservation system, he said, adding that they would be administered from Monday to Sunday next week.
Reservations can be made until 5pm tomorrow, but if there are still slots remaining, the system would remain open past the deadline, the system’s Web site says.
Photo: Dado Ruvic, Reuters
Six hospitals in the city — National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Pojen General Hospital, the Central Clinic and Hospital, the Koo Foundation Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center and the Zhongxiao branch of Taipei City Hospital — would also offer Novavax vaccinations on Friday, Tsai said.
From Monday next week, the vaccine would be available at 22 hospitals and clinics in Taipei, he said.
The Novavax vaccine is approved as a primary and booster shot for people aged 18 or older, and can be mixed and matched with other brands available for that age group, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.
Taiwan received its first shipment of 504,000 doses of the vaccine on Thursday. The remainder of Taiwan’s order of 2.268 million Novavax vaccines from COVAX — the global vaccine program run by Gavi and the WHO — would be delivered by the end of the year, the CECC has said.
Meanwhile, Taiwan yesterday received a shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children aged five to 11, the final batch of the vaccine it has ordered for this year, the CECC said.
The shipment contains 590,400 doses that expire on Dec. 30, it said.
Taiwan signed a contract in April to purchase 1.8 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for adults and 2.2 million doses of the vaccine for children aged five to 11, which have now all been delivered.
The CECC previously said that it was negotiating a new deal to purchase Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for children aged six months to four years.
The first batch of the Moderna vaccine for children aged six months or older is scheduled to arrive early this month, with administration of the vaccine beginning in the middle of this month, the CECC said.
To date, 91.33 percent of Taiwan’s population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, 84.08 percent has received two doses and 70.34 percent has received a booster shot, CECC data showed.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
RSS