Whether Taiwan reopens its borders would depend on the nation’s vaccination coverage rate and the COVID-19 situation in other countries, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare is aiming for a 70 percent first-dose vaccination coverage and 30 percent two-dose coverage as part of its consideration, Shih told a media briefing following the weekly Cabinet meeting.
In spite of a relatively stable COVID-19 situation in Taiwan, and calls from foreign missions and businesses in the country to allow more international travelers, the government is maintaining strict border control measures.
Since March last year, Taiwan has banned most arrivals except for citizens and foreign residents, and required those who do enter the country to undergo a stringent 14-day quarantine.
The government further tightened its border restrictions in May in the wake of a surge in domestic COVID-19 infections.
Exceptions to the visitor ban can only be made in emergencies or for humanitarian reasons, but travelers have to apply in advance to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) for permission to enter the country.
As of yesterday, about 5.69 million people, or 24.3 percent of the population, had been fully vaccinated, with 15.2 million people, or 65 percent of the population, having received one dose, CECC data showed.
MIXING VACCINES
Separately yesterday, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that mixing certain brands for first and second doses would be allowed for all age groups after the 13th round of COVID-19 vaccinations, depending on the availability of vaccine supplies.
The ministry’s report, submitted to the Legislative Yuan, said that its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices had decided in July that people in categories 1 to 3 of its vaccination priority list who were inoculated with the AstraZeneca vaccine for their dose could receive an mRNA vaccine — Pfizer BioNTech or Moderna — for their second dose.
The report said that in the 13th round, the BioNTech vaccine could be provided as a second dose to those who had received the AstraZeneca vaccine more than 10 weeks ago, to increase the nation’s vaccination coverage rate.
Chen said that the Moderna vaccine would only be available for mixed vaccination for those in the first category, while BioNTech could be available to all age groups if deliveries are steady and supply is adequate.
The nation yesterday reported two new imported COVID-19 cases and zero local infections or deaths from the disease.
One of the imported cases was a Taiwanese in her 20s who returned on Oct. 6 from the US, and the other was a Taiwanese man in his 60s, a resident of Myanmar, who arrived on Sept. 24.
To date, Taiwan has confirmed a total of 16,349 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began in early last year, of which 14,585 were domestic infections.
Additional reporting by CNA
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
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,
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