Taiwanese health authorities expanded the offering of vaccines against COVID-19 to younger people, as further shipments of shots made by AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech arrived.
The Central Epidemic Control Command (CECC) Chief Chen Shih-chung said on Tuesday that vaccines would be offered to people between the ages of 23 and 28 and that those eligible could make appointments on the official COVID-19 reservation platform.
Chen also said people between the ages of 18 and 22 could make appointments to receive the vaccine.
Meanwhile young people between the ages of 12 and 17 can be vaccinated at schools, which are to reopen on Sep. 1.
The wider availability of the shot comes as further shipments arrive.
Some 595,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine landed in the afternoon on a China Airlines cargo plane from Thailand.
With the shipment, Taiwan has received 3.27 million of a total of 10 million doses purchased from AstraZeneca.
Chen said the CECC expected to receive 900,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech shot from Germany on Wednesday, the first batch of 15 million doses donated by the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and two charitable foundations.
Chen said he would personally go to Taoyuan International Airport to receive the delivery, which he said had great significance for Taiwan.
He also said Taiwan had contracted 20 million Moderna doses for 2022 and had entered a non-binding pact for more AstraZeneca doses which he said “should be enough for our needs.’’
However, Chen said Taiwan needs to purchase vaccines from different suppliers to “spread risk’’ in terms of deliveries. (dpa/NAN)