A donation consisting of 2.5 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine from the US to Taiwan is set to arrive on Sunday.
On June 6, three US senators who were visiting Taiwan announced that the US planned on donating 750,000 vaccine doses to Taiwan. However, the US has since added 1.75 million doses, bringing the total number of vaccine doses donated to 2.5 million.
Reuters reports the 2.5 million doses boarded a China Airlines flight in Memphis, Tennessee on Saturday and will arrive in Taiwan on Sunday evening.
According to the report, a senior US official said, "We are not allocating these doses, or delivering these doses, based on political or economic conditions. We are donating these vaccines with the singular objective of saving lives.”
Taiwan has "faced unfair challenges in its efforts to acquire vaccines on the global marketplace” the official said. “We believe that these attempts by China to block purchases, for political purposes, are reprehensible.”
The donation comes as Taiwan’s government faces difficulties acquiring vaccines. President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration says that Beijing hampered its deal to purchase vaccines from Germany’s BioNTech.
So far, Taiwan has received less than 3 million Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines. It has, however, signed contracts to purchase 5.05 million doses of Moderna, 10 million doses of AstraZeneca, and 4.76 million doses of unspecified brands through COVAX. The government has also ordered 10 million doses of two domestically produced vaccines, but those vaccines have yet to begin Phase 3 trials.
Only around 6% of Taiwan's 23.5 million people have received at least one jab of a COVID-19 vaccine. That’s as Taiwan faces its biggest outbreak of the disease since the pandemic began.
Tsai’s government had seen much success and approval with its early containment of the pandemic, but the shortage of vaccines amidst the recent outbreak has led to a public outcry for vaccines and a drop in her approval ratings.
Foxconn Founder Terry Gou has come forward and offered to buy 5 million vaccines from BioNTech for Taiwan. The government announced on Friday that it would authorize Foxconn and TSMC to purchase vaccines to donate to Taiwan.