Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) yesterday instructed the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) to develop plans to cooperate with local governments to boost the COVID-19 vaccination rate among elderly people.
At a meeting to discuss the global and local COVID-19 situation, the effects of easing border restrictions, as well as the nation’s vaccination coverage, the CECC said that the first and second-dose vaccination coverage rates in Taiwan are about 94 and 88.9 percent respectively, while first and second booster shot coverage rates are about 76.3 and 22.4 percent respectively.
The majority of people aged 65 years or older who died from COVID-19 were unvaccinated against the disease or not yet fully vaccinated, so it has released the percentages of unvaccinated people in two age groups — between 65 and 74, and 75 or older — for each administrative region, hoping that local governments would encourage vaccination among elderly people, the CECC said.
Photo: Huang Mei-chu, Taipei Times
Chen instructed the CECC to carefully explain the COVID-19 response measures that people are most concerned about, and cooperate with local governments to boost vaccination rates among elderly people and those with higher risk of severe illness from infection.
The percentage of unvaccinated people in the 65-to-74 age group was 10.2 percent and 17.7 percent among those aged 75 or older, CECC data published on Monday showed.
Hsinchu County had the highest rate of unvaccinated people aged 75 years or older at 22.5 percent, Miaoli County was next at 22 percent, while Hualien County (21.6 percent), Taitung County (21.3 percent) and Penghu County (22.9 percent) completed the top five regions, the data showed.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the CECC, on Monday said that the center would communicate with local governments, providing methods to boost vaccination rates used by other local administrations with higher coverage rates.
It would provide incentives to local administrations that have higher vaccination rates, Wang said.
The CECC yesterday reported 22,980 new local COVID-19 infections, 414 imported cases and 45 deaths.
The local case count was 28.2 percent lower than that reported on Tuesday last week, the CECC said.
The youngest death reported yesterday was an unvaccinated man in his 40s with diabetes who was diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs, it said.
He tested positive for COVID-19 after being rushed to hospital with diabetic ketoacidosis on Friday last week, it said.
He died of diabetic ketoacidosis and kidney failure on the same day, it said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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