Health Minister Chen Shih-chung says that mass production of Taiwan’s own COVID-19 vaccines could begin this July. But that’s only if the ongoing Phase 2 clinical trials are successful. Chen made the comments while taking questions before a session of the legislature on Friday.
Chen says that clinical trials of the domestic vaccine candidates are going smoothly. But production can only go forward after health authorities have the full results of the trial and are granted emergency authorization.
The comments come after authorities said on Thursday that they are planning to build a second vaccine factory capable of producing up to 20 million doses a month. That would comfortably allow Taiwan to vaccinate all its citizens and also export vaccines to other countries.
Health Minister Chen says that he would be willing to receive a COVID-19 vaccination if the general public were hesitant about inoculation. But he says that he would prefer for vaccination to follow the government’s official schedule. That schedule outlines ten priority groups. The first two groups to receive the vaccine will be workers in healthcare and pandemic prevention. That’s followed by people at high risk of contracting the virus, including workers in the aviation industry. At the age of 68, Chen falls into the eighth priority group.