An additional 105,000 publicly funded flu vaccine doses would be available to eligible people from Thursday next week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday.
TTY Biopharm Co had won the NT$12.71 million (US$386,781) contract to supply the cell culture flu vaccines, which are suitable for children older than six months, adolescents and adults, the CDC said in a statement.
The CDC had been asked to procure the additional doses by the Executive Yuan in response to soaring demand for flu vaccines.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
Administration of the additional doses is expected to start on Thursday next week as planned for people aged 65 or older, infants older than six months old, preschool children and those at higher risk of contracting the flu, the agency said.
The government-funded vaccines are to be distributed to local health bureaus on Monday, which would then send them to their planned vaccination sites, the CDC said.
At a news conference yesterday, CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) advised at-risk people to get their dose once the vaccine becomes available to prevent serious illness and death.
Tseng said that if the flu vaccination rate for at-risk groups is not as high as expected, the CDC might launch a second round of free flu vaccination campaigns.
The nation has seen a surge in vaccination demand driven by the death of actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) at the age of 48 from flu-related complications on Feb. 2.
A daily high of 73,000 government-funded influenza vaccinations were given last week, with the vaccine stockpile to run out soon, CDC data showed.
As such, the government decided to purchase an additional 100,000 doses of the influenza vaccine for at-risk groups, the CDC said.
Since Jan. 1, the government has been offering free flu shots to all unvaccinated residents aged six months or older until supplies run out.
As of Monday, 6.573 million publicly funded flu vaccines had been administered, with 13,000 doses left, CDC data showed.
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
The Chinese wife of a Taiwanese, surnamed Liu (劉), who openly advocated for China’s use of force against Taiwan, would be forcibly deported according to the law if she has not left Taiwan by Friday, National Immigration Agency (NIA) officials said yesterday. Liu, an influencer better known by her online channel name Yaya in Taiwan (亞亞在台灣), obtained permanent residency via marriage to a Taiwanese. She has been reported for allegedly repeatedly espousing pro-unification comments on her YouTube and TikTok channels, including comments supporting China’s unification with Taiwan by force and the Chinese government’s stance that “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China.” Liu
MINOR DISRUPTION: The outage affected check-in and security screening, while passport control was done manually and runway operations continued unaffected The main departure hall and other parts of Terminal 2 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport lost power on Tuesday, causing confusion among passengers before electricity was fully restored more than an hour later. The outage, the cause of which is still being investigated, began at about midday and affected parts of Terminal 2, including the check-in gates, the security screening area and some duty-free shops. Parts of the terminal immediately activated backup power sources, while others remained dark until power was restored in some of the affected areas starting at 12:23pm. Power was fully restored at 1:13pm. Taoyuan International Airport Corp said in a
RSS