The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) plans to offer a second shot of a locally developed COVID-19 vaccine from Sept. 27, five weeks after its rollout, a health official said Tuesday.
A total of 752,484 people had made an appointment to receive a COVID-19 vaccine developed and produced by Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp. in Taiwan, as of 6 p.m. Tuesday, said CECC spokesman Chuang Jen-hsiang (???).
These people will receive their first shot of the vaccine during the current round of vaccinations which is scheduled to end on Sunday.
The CECC have received 867,464 doses of the Medigen vaccine, and any that are unused will be reserved for the second shot required to be fully vaccinated, Chuang said.
The CECC plans to begin administering the second shot of the Medigen vaccine on Sept. 27 at the earliest, he added.
In contrast, the CECC extended the period between the first and second shot for most recipients of the Moderna vaccine from the recommended 28 days to 10-12 weeks on July 12 to allow more people to be given the vaccine, supplies of which are tight.
Only medical workers, flight crew and pregnant women will be able to receive the second Moderna shot 28 days after their first shot, according to the CECC.
According to statistics released on Tuesday, 3,664,620 of the 3,999,200 doses of the Moderna vaccine have been used since its rollout on June 9.
Among the Moderna doses Taiwan received, 2.5 million were donated by the United States, while nearly 1.5 million were delivered by the manufacturer as part of an order of 5.05 million doses placed by the government.
Since Taiwan began its COVID-19 vaccine rollout with doses supplied by AstraZeneca on March 22, more than 9.46 million, or about 40 percent of the population have received a first vaccine shot, while less than 3 percent have received the two shots needed to be fully vaccinated.
Around 5.89 million people have received at least one shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine, 3.4 million were given the Moderna vaccine, while 167,268 received a shot of the Medigen vaccine on the first day it was included in the government’s COVID-19 vaccination program Monday.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel