The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation’s application to procure COVID-19 vaccines for the government.
In a surprising U-turn, the Cabinet approved the nonprofit’s bid to obtain 5 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, saying that it would follow the same model set out for the Hon Hai Precision Industry Co-affiliated YongLin Foundation, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC).
The Tzu Chi foundation thanked the government for its backing, saying that it hoped that the process to obtain vaccines would proceed smoothly, so that Taiwan could return to normal as soon as possible.
Photo courtesy of the Executive Yuan
The application is meant to help safeguard the health of Taiwanese, it said, thanking other initiatives from the private sector to alleviate the nation’s outbreak of COVID-19.
The Tzu Chi foundation on Wednesday last week applied with the Food and Drug Administration to try to obtain the vaccines, following similar moves by YongLin and TSMC.
The Executive Yuan initially said that the application of Tzu Chi would not be considered alongside those of Yonglin or TSMC, calling them “different,” without elaborating.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Saturday last week wrote on Facebook that she had spoken with foundation Dharma Master Cheng Yen (證嚴法師) via videoconference, telling Cheng that the Central Epidemic Command Center would consider its request.
Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) later that day announced that the application would be considered as a special project, following the model of the Yonglin and TSMC applications.
After reviewing Tzu Chi’s application, the government hopes to expedite negotiations to obtain the vaccines as early as possible, Lo said, without elaborating on the reason for the Executive Yuan’s reversal.
Tzu Chi executive director Yen Po-wen (顏博文) last month said that should the purchase proceed as planned, vaccines would be directly imported to Taiwan from the manufacturer in Germany.
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