The first shipment of Moderna’s next-generation COVID-19 bivalent vaccine would arrive in Taiwan tomorrow, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
The shipment consists of about 800,000 doses, said Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the CECC.
The vaccine targets the original SARS-CoV-2 strain as well as its Omicron BA.1 variant, he said.
“I must re-emphasize that this vaccine is a brand new vaccine, not an old vaccine, and that it has just received emergency use authorization [EUA] in Japan on Monday,” he said.
“It is effective against the Omicron BA.2 and BA.5 subvariants that are circulating in the community. It is better than the original monovalent vaccine,” he added.
The doses would go through lot release testing after arrival, Wang said.
If the tests go smoothly, they would be ready for administration the following weekend, Wang said.
As some have been asking why the government did not purchase next-generation bivalent vaccines targeting the original strain and the BA.5 subvariant, he said that BA.5-adapted bivalent vaccines have obtained EUA in the US through reviews of animal test results, which is an innovative method not yet adopted by other countries.
Taiwan has received data on animal test results for Pfizer-BioNTech’s BA.5-adapted bivalent vaccine, he said.
Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have said they would provide more data for review later this month, he added.
The CECC would purchase BA.5-adapted bivalent vaccines if they obtain EUA in Taiwan, but the earliest shipment is expected in November, he said, adding that the center would keep up with the review progress in Japan and the EU.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩), head of the CECC’s disease surveillance division, said 49,540 new local cases, 168 imported cases and 37 deaths were confirmed yesterday.
The daily caseload is about 20 percent higher from Wednesday last week, he said.
The youngest fatality was a man in his 20s who had received a vaccine booster and had a medical history of arrhythmia, said CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division.
The man tested positive after developing a sore throat on Friday last week. He was diagnosed with COVID-19 in a telemedicine visit and prescribed antiviral drugs.
However, his family found him unconscious that evening, Lo said.
He was not breathing and had no pulse when he arrived at an emergency room, where he was intubated, Lo said, adding that he died the following day.
Of the 37 deaths, 21 people (57 percent) were unvaccinated, and 32 had not received a vaccine booster.
A majority of deaths in the latest wave of infections driven by the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 had not received booster shots, he said.
Lo urged elderly people to receive at least one booster dose for better protection.
A free exhibition aimed at teaching the public about air-raid shelters and basic emergency personal protection skills today opened on the concourse level of the Taipei MRT's Ximen Station. The event, organized by the National Police Agency, aims to raise awareness about disaster preparedness ahead of nationwide air raid drills scheduled from July 15 to 18, which are part of broader urban resilience exercises. The exhibition outlines the recommended actions people should take depending on whether they are indoors, commuting or outdoors when air-raid sirens sound. It also teaches people how to equip air-raid shelters and pack emergency "go bags," with displays
A first shipment of five tons of Taiwan tilapia was sent from Tainan to Singapore on Wednesday, following an order valued at NT$600,000 (US$20,500) placed with a company in the city. The products, including frozen whole fish and pre- cooked fish belly, were dispatched from Jiangjun Fishing Harbor, where a new aquatic processing and logistics center is under construction. At the launch, Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) called the move a “breakthrough,” marking Taiwan’s expansion into the Singaporean tilapia market. Taiwan’s tilapia exports have traditionally focused on the United States, Canada, and the Middle East, Huang said, adding that the new foothold in
An electric bus charging facility at Taipei Metro’s Beitou Depot officially opened yesterday with 22 charging bays to serve the city’s 886 electric buses. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) told a ceremony to mark the opening of the facility that the city aims to fully electrify its bus fleet by 2030. The number of electric buses has grown from about 650 last year to 886 this year and is expected to surpass 1,000 by the end of the year, Chiang said. Setting up the charging station in a metro depot optimizes land and energy use, as the metro uses power mainly during the
An exhibition demonstrating the rejuvenation of the indigenous Kuskus Village in Pingtung County’s Mudan Township (牡丹) opened at the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s conservation station in Taipei on Thursday. Agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) said they have been promoting the use and development of forestry resources to local indigenous residents for eight years to drive regional revitalization. While modern conservation approaches mostly stem from western scientific research, eco-friendly knowledge and skills passed down through generations of indigenous people, who have lived in Taiwan for centuries, could be more suitable for the environment, he said. The agency’s Pingtung branch Director-General Yang Jui-fen (楊瑞芬)
RSS