Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je says that Taiwan can’t wait until August for vaccines. That’s after Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said on Tuesday that Taiwan will have two million more vaccine doses in June and a total of 10 million by August.
Ko said, “My knowledge tells me that if we wait until August to use the vaccines, and if we’re using domestic vaccines, I think that’s like gambling the fate of the country on an uncertain expectation. I believe that the current situation can’t hold up until August. There will be too many deaths.” The Taipei mayor was a well-known doctor at National Taiwan University before being elected as mayor.
Taipei City Government Spokesperson Vicky Chen said that Taipei has used up all of the vaccine doses it has received so far. Chen also said the 22,000 doses the central government plans to give the city from the latest batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine will not be enough. She said that Taipei’s health bureau estimates that the city needs at least 34,000 doses.