An adapted COVID-19 vaccine targeting the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant would be available for people aged 65 or older from Tuesday next week, healthcare workers from Oct. 2 and all eligible people likely from Oct. 9, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday.
Moderna’s Spikevax XBB.1.5 COVID-19 vaccine received emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday last week.
The centers on Tuesday afternoon received final confirmation of the schedule for the vaccine’s delivery and called a meeting with local health departments to decide on availability, CDC Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said.
Photo: CNA
People aged 65 or older would first be eligible for the vaccine from Tuesday next week, Chuang said.
As government-funded flu vaccinations would begin on Oct. 2 and more than 1 million eligible people would likely get their flu shot in the first week, eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine would only be expanded to healthcare workers on Oct. 2, he said.
“We have tentatively arranged for the eligibility to be expanded to all [eligible] people on Oct. 9, but we will see how the actual vaccinations go on Sept. 26 and Oct. 2 to decide whether it should be expanded on Oct. 9,” he said.
The WHO in May said that new formulations of COVID-19 vaccines should aim to induce antibody responses that neutralize XBB descendant lineages, such as by using a monovalent XBB.1 descendant lineage, said Chiu Cheng-hsun (邱政洵), a professor at Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital’s Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases.
The number of COVID-19 cases is increasing slightly in some areas, especially in the US and Europe, and the most predominant imported and local cases are still the XBB subvariants, he said.
Immunogenicity studies show that the XBB.1.5-adapted vaccine protects against the XBB.1.5, XBB.1.16, XBB.2.3.2 subvariants, and even the newly emerging EG.5.1 subvariant, Chiu said.
As more than 70 percent of hospitalized COVID-19 cases this year were aged 65 or older, the CDC is urging older people to get vaccinated as soon as possible, Chuang said, adding that local governments would be giving out NT$500 vouchers or gifts, and at-home rapid test kits as encouragement.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
QUICK LOOK: The amendments include stricter recall requirements and Constitutional Court procedures, as well as a big increase in local governments’ budgets Portions of controversial amendments to tighten requirements for recalling officials and Constitutional Court procedures were passed by opposition lawmakers yesterday following clashes between lawmakers in the morning, as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members tried to block Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators from entering the chamber. Parts of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) and Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) passed the third reading yesterday. The legislature was still voting on various amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) as of press time last night, after the session was extended to midnight. Amendments to Article 4
RSS