Taiwan has ordered about 2 million doses of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine through the global vaccine sharing initiative COVAX, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday.
However, it is not clear when the first shipment would arrive and how many doses it would contain, said Chen, who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).
The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing technical data on the Novavax vaccine as part of its emergency use authorization process, he added.
Photo: Reuters
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has recommended that the vaccine be given to people aged 18 or older as first, second or booster shots, Chen said.
The interval between the first and second doses should be 28 days, and a booster shot should follow 12 weeks after a second dose, he said.
Asked whether there is interest in the vaccine in Taiwan, Chen said that subunit vaccines like Novavax are suitable for people who are allergic to other types of COVID-19 vaccines offered in Taiwan, or those who are put off by the potentially more severe side effects of other vaccines.
Photo courtesy of the CECC
While the locally developed Medigen vaccine is also a subunit vaccine, it has not yet been approved by the WHO, which could lead people to choose the Novavax vaccine instead, he said.
Taiwan has ordered 4.76 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from COVAX, of which 1.02 million doses, all of the AstraZeneca brand, have been delivered, the CECC said.
Meanwhile, the ACIP said that a meeting with experts recommended against giving COVID-19 vaccines to children aged 5 to 11, and advised against administering booster shots to those aged 12 to 17.
Photo: CNA
In other developments, Taiwan reported 15 domestic COVID-19 cases, including 13 from a new cluster at a chemical plant in Kaohsiung.
An employee at the plant began to show symptoms on Wednesday, and her test results came back positive yesterday, Chen said.
Subsequent testing found that 10 other employees had also contracted COVID-19, as well as two of their family members, one of whom is a high-school student, he said.
The student’s classmates and homeroom teacher have tested negative and have been asked to quarantine, Chen said.
The 45 employees at the chemical plant who tested negative are also in quarantine, and the plant is to suspend operations, he said.
The CECC has not yet identified the source of the cluster, he said.
The other two domestic cases tested positive in quarantine, and their infections are related to a cluster of unknown origin centered on a wedding in Chiayi City, Chen said.
Each of the local cases reported yesterday had received either two or three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, the CECC said.
Taiwan yesterday also reported 124 imported cases of COVID-19, the highest daily total recorded since the pandemic began, Chen said.
The previous record was on Saturday last week, when 120 imported cases were reported.
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
SECURITY: The New Zealand and Australian navies also sailed military vessels through the Strait yesterday to assert the right of freedom of navigation The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force on Wednesday made its first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait in response to the intrusion by a Chinese reconnaissance aircraft into Japan’s sovereign airspace last month, Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday. The Japanese news platform reported that the destroyer JS Sazanamisailed down through the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, citing sources in the Japanese government with knowledge of the matter. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi declined to comment on the reports at a regular briefing because they concern military operations. Military vessels from New Zealand and Australia also sailed through the Strait on the same day, Wellington’s defense ministry
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’