Taiwan has begun its nationwide roll-out of COVID-19 vaccinations. Monday’s first inoculations took place after Taiwan’s Food and Administration finished inspecting the shipment of AstraZeneca vaccine doses last week. Doses have now arrived at 57 designated hospitals around the country.
Among the first recipients of the vaccine were Premier Su Tseng-chang and Health Minister Chen Shih-chung, in a move designed to bolster public confidence in the vaccine. Official photographs show the two officials receiving shots at National Taiwan University Hospital in Taipei. Both said there was no pain during the injection and they feel perfectly well.
Unlike most countries, Taiwan is not prioritizing the elderly in its vaccine roll-out. That’s because there is currently no domestic transmission of COVID-19, so Taiwan’s general population is less at risk. Instead, the Central Epidemic Command Center says it will first vaccinate all medical and non-medical staff at hospitals and quarantine facilities. That will be followed by pandemic prevention workers, including some staff at airports. People aged 65 and above will be the eighth group to receive the vaccine.
To date, Taiwan has received just under 180,000 vaccine doses. But it has signed contracts for a total of just under 20 million. Those include 10 million from AstraZeneca, about 5 million from Moderna, and another 5 million or so from the vaccine distribution initiative COVAX.
Health Minister Chen Shih-chung says producers of domestic vaccines should get emergency authorization in July. He says he hopes President Tsai Ing-wen can be among the first to receive a Taiwan-made vaccine.