Taiwan yesterday received separate shipments of Pfizer Inc-BioNTech SE and AstraZeneca PLC COVID-19 vaccines, with Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) saying that more such deliveries are expected.
A total of 540,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were sent from Frankfurt airport in Germany on China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) Flight CI-62 and arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5:10am, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.
The doses are the third batch to arrive as part of a donation by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密)-affiliated Yonglin Foundation and the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, said Chen, who heads the center.
Photo: CNA
Unlike previous shipments, yesterday’s was labeled “requested in a contract,” Chen told the CECC’s daily news conference in Taipei.
The latest doses would expire on Feb. 8 next year, he said.
Hon Hai has said that more doses would arrive over the next two days, Chen said.
Photo: Courtesy of CECC
The groups between them have donated 15 million Pfizer-BioNTech doses, of which 2.38 million have been delivered, the CECC said.
The first batch of 930,000 doses arrived on Sept. 2 and the second of 910,000 doses arrived on Sept. 9, it said.
A CAL flight carrying about 656,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine landed at Taoyuan airport at 3:10pm, it said.
Photo: Courtesy of CECC
That delivery was part of a contract for 10 million doses that the government signed with AstraZeneca on Oct. 30 last year, the CECC said.
It is the 10th batch under the contract, with previous shipments arriving on March 3 (117,000 doses), July 7 (626,000 doses), July 15 (560,000 doses), July 27 (582,000 doses), Aug. 12 (524,000 doses), Aug. 27 (265,000 doses), Aug. 31 (595,000 doses), Sept. 10 (458,000 doses) and Sept. 17 (640,000 doses), it said.
The doses that arrived yesterday brought the total delivered so far to about 5.02 million, Chen said, adding that they are to expire on Jan. 31 next year.
Supplies of the Medigen COVID-19 vaccine are stable, the CECC said in a statement.
People aged 20 or older who have not received a COVID-19 vaccine dose, or who had a first dose of the Medigen vaccine more than 28 days prior, can book inoculation appointments online at 1922.gov.tw, the statement said.
As of yesterday, about 724,000 people had received a first dose of the Medigen vaccine, and among them about 39,000 had completed two doses, it said.
On Wednesday, 320,649 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered, of which 230,703 were first doses and 89,946 were second doses, CECC data showed.
A total of 15,441,421 COVID-19 vaccine doses — 13,065,648 first doses and 2,375,773 second doses — had been administered since March 22, the data showed.
As of yesterday, the nation’s first-dose vaccination rate was 55.71 percent, the data showed.
The CECC yesterday reported seven new COVID-19 cases, all contracted overseas, and no deaths.
Of the cases, two are Taiwanese, while the others are citizens of Indonesia, India, the Philippines and Eswatini, the CECC said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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