The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday expanded registration for the national online COVID-19 vaccination booking system to include people aged 18 to 49.
From 9am yesterday, the booking system, 1922.gov.tw, started allowing people born in or before 2003 to register for vaccination, said Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), the CECC deputy head.
However, due to heavy online traffic after the announcement, the server crashed yesterday morning, before stabilizing at about midday.
Photo: CNA
The eligibility was expanded from people in the ninth priority group — those aged 18 to 64 who have a high-risk disease, a rare disease or catastrophic illness — and the 10th priority group of people aged 50 to 64 when the system was launched last week.
The deadline for people in those two priority groups to register for inoculation was 5pm on Monday.
Minister Without Portfolio Audrey Tang (唐鳳), who designed the system, said that approximately 1.1 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine are available, and about 1.1 million people in the ninth and 10th priority groups had selected it as their choice of vaccine by the deadline.
Photo courtesy of the CECC
All of those registered users received a text message yesterday morning informing them to book a vaccination appointment, which is to take place between Friday and Thursday next week, she said.
As of 1pm yesterday, more than 50,000 people had booked an appointment.
The deadline for registration for the next round of vaccination — again the AstraZeneca vaccine only — is at 5pm tomorrow, and all people aged 18 or older are eligible to register, Tang said.
As of 1pm yesterday, more than 1.67 million people aged 18 to 49 had registered for vaccination, she said.
If the number of people who selected the AstraZeneca vaccine exceeds the total number of doses available for the next round, eligible recipients would receive a text message for booking an appointment based on their age in descending order, she said.
The CECC said that as of 5pm yesterday, a total of 4,852,553 people had registered for the next round of vaccination.
It added that 63,310 people (1.3 percent) chose only the AstraZeneca vaccine, while 3,098,106 people (63.84 percent) chose only the Moderna vaccine, and 1,691,137 people (34.85 percent) selected both vaccines.
Meanwhile, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi yesterday said Tokyo would donate a third batch of vaccines — 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine — to Taiwan tomorrow.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, yesterday confirmed that the vaccines are expected to arrive in Taiwan tomorrow, thanking the Japanese government for donating three batches of vaccines.
CECC data showed that 3,821,539 doses of vaccine had been administered as of 10am yesterday, with 15.93 percent of the population having received at least one dose.
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