Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) are to be the first people in Taiwan to receive the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, at National Taiwan University Hospital in Taipei today, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
As today is the first day of COVID-19 vaccination for frontline healthcare workers most likely to have direct exposure to COVID-19 patients, Su yesterday said he had asked the CECC specialist advisory panel for an assessment and that he would get a shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine today.
The panel last week suggested that Su and Chen take the lead in the nation’s inoculation drive to reassure the public that the vaccine is safe, as concerns were raised after a few countries partially suspended AstraZeneca vaccinations due to some reported cases of blood clots.
Photo: CNA
At the CECC’s news conference, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, confirmed that Su and Chen would arrive at the hospital at 7:40am to be vaccinated.
Asked whether Su, who is over 65, should receive the vaccine, Chuang said the AstraZeneca vaccine is not being given to people aged 65 or older in some countries, because there were fewer older participants in the vaccine’s clinical trials.
However, the AstraZeneca vaccine is being offered to people aged 65 or older in the UK and some European countries, as well as South Korea, which initially had not approved the vaccine for the age group, he said.
So far there have been no abnormal effects reported after vaccination in this age group, he added.
The CECC on Friday held an online meeting with local health departments and 57 hospitals that would be offering the vaccine to explain the vaccination procedure, Chuang said.
An Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting was also held on Friday, and the specialists decided to include a few precautionary tips recommended by the European Medicines Agency in the consent form for COVID-19 vaccination in Taiwan, he said.
Asked about a report by Shanghai health authorities that a traveler from Taiwan who arrived in the city on Wednesday was confirmed to have COVID-19 yesterday, Chuang said the center has contacted authorities in Shanghai for more details, but there has been no response yet.
Separately yesterday, the CECC reported an imported case of COVID-19.
The case is a Taiwanese who traveled to Poland for business in November last year, Chuang said.
He returned to Taiwan on Feb. 25 and was quarantined at a hotel because he did not show any symptoms upon arrival, he said.
However, the man on March 1 said he had developed a mild cough, but did not report it to the local health department, as he thought the symptom was not serious.
Chuang said the man returned home on March 10 and continued to practice self-health management, and the result of a paid COVID-19 test on Friday came back positive yesterday.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS