The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday expanded the eligibility for COVID-19 vaccination to the fourth priority group — people who need to travel abroad for special reasons — adding that out-of-pocket vaccines would be available from Wednesday next week.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said although Taiwan’s COVID-19 vaccination program was on Monday expanded to include the top three groups in the priority list, people are still “not enthusiastic” about getting vaccinated.
“Only 1,220 people received a vaccine shot on Tuesday, and a total of 27,113 people have received COVID-19 vaccination” so far, he said.
Photo: CNA
The fourth priority group refers to people who have been proposed by a competent authority and approved by the CECC as special cases who need to travel, Chen said.
They include diplomats and public-sector expatriates; staff members of foreign representative offices and their family members — given their country of origin offers vaccination to Taiwanese diplomats there under the principle of reciprocity; and athletes or contestants representing the nation.
The group consists of about 5,000 people, Chen said, adding that the number of people in the top four priority groups total about 618,000.
As authorities are listing eligible vaccine recipients to the center, the CECC urged people who have been notified that they are eligible to book a vaccine appointment with a designated hospital in advance and take their National Health Insurance card to get vaccinated.
Chen said the center would also release an additional 10,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines for people who need to travel abroad, starting on Wednesday next week.
He said people who need to travel abroad “for business, work, study, medical treatment or humanitarian reasons” can apply for the paid vaccine, but those who are traveling for tourism purposes would not be allowed to apply for the time being.
People who wish to receive a paid vaccination can book an appointment with one of the 31 designated vaccination hospitals that have a travel medicine outpatient clinic, he said.
There is at least one vaccination hospital in each city or county, including the outlying islands.
“They would need to pay the hospital’s registration fee, examination fee and injection fee, but they would not pay the cost of the vaccine,” as they are not allowed to choose the vaccine brand at this time, Chen said.
The vaccine is free of charge also because the recipients are included in the government-funded vaccination program, albeit at a lower priority, so they would only be paying the administrative fees to get vaccinated earlier, he said.
The paid vaccines are not limited to Republic of China citizens, and foreign residents can also apply to receive vaccination, the CECC said.
The center has capped the total administration fees that the hospitals can charge for paid vaccines at NT$600 for medical centers, NT$550 for regional hospitals and NT$500 for district hospitals, Chen said.
“Getting vaccinated is preparing for the future,” he said, adding that while Taiwan does not have local outbreaks, getting vaccinated can provide better protection against COVID-19, as national borders will be gradually opened.
The two doses of the vaccine should be administered at least eight weeks apart and it takes about two weeks for the body to build up immunity after vaccination, so it could be too late to receive a vaccine when national borders open, Chen said, urging eligible vaccine recipients to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
Quarantine rules could be eased if Taiwan’s vaccine coverage rate reaches a safe level and the center is working toward reducing the quarantine period for arriving travelers who have been vaccinated against COVID-19, Chen said, adding that possible options and standards are still being discussed.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,