A panel of health experts on Thursday unanimously agreed that the locally produced Medigen COVID-19 vaccine was effective in providing protection against severe illness and death from the disease.
The vaccine received a 14-0 vote of support, following a review of its effectiveness, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in a statement.
The COVID-19 vaccine produced by Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp was granted an emergency use authorization (EUA) by the FDA in July last year, with the requirement that it produce a report on the vaccine’s effectiveness by July.
Photo: CNA
Medigen was later asked to also provide additional information on its vaccine, such as the clinical data on its effectiveness in protecting against severe illness and death, especially for elderly people, the FDA said.
Wu Ming-mei (吳明美), deputy head of the FDA’s Medical Products Division, told reporters that the supplementary information was submitted by the company on Friday last week, before the Sunday deadline.
The FDA is now hoping that the company would provide another report after completion of the Solidarity Trial Vaccines by the WHO, which has selected Medigen as one of its vaccine candidates, Wu said.
The WHO’s trial is designed to rapidly evaluate the efficacy and safety of promising new candidate vaccines selected by an independent vaccine prioritization advisory group.
Separately, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 27,594 new COVID-19 infections, all but 47 domestically transmitted, and 74 deaths from the disease.
The deceased ranged in age from their 40s to their 90s, and all but four had underlying health issues, while 29 were unvaccinated against COVID-19, the CECC said.
It reported 101 new moderate cases and 57 severe cases.
There were no new reported cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), it said.
There have been 171 reported cases of MIS-C among 261 children in Taiwan aged 12 or under who had severe COVID-19 infections, the CECC said.
New Taipei City reported the highest number of new COVID-19 cases with 4,785, followed by Taichung with 3,747 and Kaohsiung with 3,638.
Taoyuan reported 2,787 new cases, Tainan 2,503, Taipei 2,479, Changhua County 1,380, Pingtung County 900, Hsinchu County 717, Yunlin County 645, Miaoli County 606, Hsinchu City 598 and Chiayi County 574.
Nantou County had 483 cases, Yilan County 425, Keelung 355, Chiayi City 346, Hualien County 295, Taitung County 163, Kinmen County 75, Penghu County 36 and Lienchiang County 10 cases, CECC data showed.
Taiwan has recorded 7,837,658 COVID-19 infections since the start of the pandemic in early 2020, including 7,801,030 domestic cases.
With the 74 deaths reported yesterday, the total number of COVID-19 deaths in Taiwan rose to 13,084, the data showed.
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