The percentage of the population that has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday passed the 50 percent mark, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, announced the milestone in the nation’s vaccination campaign at the center’s daily news conference in Taipei.
Of the population, 50.16 percent had been vaccinated, with 57.95 doses per 100 people given, he said.
Photo: Hung Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
On Wednesday, 176,799 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered, of which 70,927 were first doses and 105,872 were second doses, CECC data showed.
A total of 13,589,767 COVID-19 vaccine doses — 11,763,739 first doses and 1,826,028 second doses — had been given since vaccinations began on March 22, the data showed.
Five cities and counties — Tainan, Taipei, Taoyuan, New Taipei City and Miaoli County — on Wednesday began offering the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to students aged 12 to 17 on school campuses.
A total of 8,822 vaccine doses were administered to students in those jurisdictions on the first day, Chuang said.
Twelve more cities and counties were expected to begin vaccinating students on school campuses yesterday, he said.
No adverse events following vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had been recorded, Chuang said, adding that there might be delays in reporting, but that the center was monitoring the situation.
Chuang declined to confirm reports that a shipment of Pfizer-BioNTech doses would arrive in Taiwan today.
Once the doses arrived and were ready to be distributed, the center would open a 10th round of vaccinations, with people under the age of 40 in vaccination group 9 likely to be given priority, he said.
Depending on the availability of doses, the vaccine would then be offered to people aged 64 or younger in descending order of age, he said.
The center would ask researchers to perform clinical trials to see whether the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines should be mixed, with one given as a first dose and the other as a second dose, Chuang said.
If the results are good, the center would allow the brands to be mixed, he said.
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