Updated vaccines targeting the JN.1 variant of SARS-CoV-2 would be available from Oct. 1, health officials told a news briefing in Taipei yesterday.
The government urges people to get inoculated with any available COVID-19 vaccine, as shots with a 30 percent mismatch to the latest variants can retain up to 80 percent of their effectiveness, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices convener Lee Ping-ing (李秉穎) said.
A recent WHO advisory states that governments should provide vaccinations as soon as doses become available and not try to obtain the latest vaccines at the expense of delaying inoculations, Lee said.
Photo: CNA
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said the centers selected vaccines targeting the JN.1 variant for the fall and winter, as newer vaccines targeting the KP.2 variant are not expected to be available outside North America soon.
Citing the government’s contract with Moderna, Chuang said that 5.5 million doses of JN.1-adapted vaccines would be delivered in the fall and winter, and another 2.7 million doses would arrive late next year.
The CDC plans to authorize COVID-19 vaccine subsidies on a year-by-year basis following the full delivery of Moderna vaccines next year, he said.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese are urged to get vaccinated with the remaining 2.7 million XBB-targeted vaccine doses, he said.
Influenza vaccinations would be administered concurrently with COVID-19 jabs, CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) said.
The new COVID-19 vaccines would first be available to doctors, nurses and hospital workers; people aged 65 or older; people of indigenous descent aged 55 or older; and people in long-term care facilities, Tseng said.
Children aged six months to 18 years; parents of infants younger than six months; childcare professionals; people with underlying health conditions aged 19 to 64; people with a body mass index higher than 30; people with rare diseases or serious injuries; and people who work in animal or human disease prevention are also eligible, she said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
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