Moderna’s second-generation bivalent COVID-19 vaccine might be available to the public late this month at the earliest, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported 41,021 new local COVID-19 infections.
The CECC on Tuesday announced the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ recommendations for the Moderna bivalent vaccine, including a two-phase rollout, eligible groups and specifying that it only be used as booster shots.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the CECC, yesterday said that the bivalent vaccine must be administered “at least three months” after a previous COVID-19 vaccination.
Photo: AFP
“The second-generation vaccine is a booster shot, or a so-called third, fourth or even fifth dose for some,” Wang said.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare has ordered the vaccines from Moderna, with the first shipment containing 3 million doses and the company in the process of arranging shipping, he said.
The company has agreed to send samples in advance so the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can begin lot release testing earlier, he said.
Asked about Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) questions over why the CECC has not purchased bivalent vaccines adapted by Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech for the Omicron BA.4/BA.5 SARS-CoV-2 subvariants, which last week received emergency use authorization in the US, Wang said that the Omicron BA.1-adapted bivalent vaccine “is effective in protecting against the current circulating virus strains.”
The Omicron BA.1-adapted vaccine is still new, and as Japan plans to start administering it on Sept. 19, Taiwan hopes to make it available here as soon as possible, he said.
The US approved the BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent vaccines based on animal experiments, which is a new review method to try to keep COVID-19 vaccines up to date, but other countries have not followed the US in adopting the method, Wang said.
The CECC would pay close attention to whether the US method would become a global trend, he said.
“US government reviews cover US residents and Taiwan government reviews cover Taiwan residents,” Wang said, adding that the BA.4/BA.5-adapted vaccines are not sold outside the US, so the CECC cannot purchase them until they have been reviewed and authorized in Taiwan.
The CECC does not rule out the possibility of ordering the BA.4/BA.5 vaccines, but it is likely that they will not be available until the end of the year, he said.
Novavax has made changes to its vaccine manufacturing process and has just submitted its new manufacturing data to the FDA for review, so once the data is approved, a shipment containing hundreds of thousands of Novavax COVID-19 vaccines is expected to arrive soon, Wang said.
As case numbers in Taiwan are rising due to the spread of the BA.5 strain, the CECC encourages people who are eligible for any type of COVID-19 vaccine to get a shot as soon as possible, he added.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩), who heads the CECC’s disease surveillance division, said that 41,021 new local cases, 275 imported cases and 26 deaths were confirmed yesterday.
CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), the CECC’s spokesman, said that two of the deceased were men in their 40s, including a suspected case of reinfection in a man who had systemic vasculitis and tested positive in the middle of May and late July.
The CECC as of Tuesday had recorded 11,027 suspected cases of COVID-19 reinfection, with 31 people among them dying, Lo said.
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