Taiwan is expecting a large order of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to arrive in May, including 2.2 million child doses and 1.8 million adult doses. Premier Su Tseng-chang told lawmakers on Thursday that Taiwan is close to finalizing the deal with the vaccine manufacturers.
The news of a vaccine shipment comes as Taiwan experiences a massive surge in COVID-19 cases. The health ministry predicts that the country could see over 20,000 new daily cases by the end of next week, and possibly up to 37,000.
Premier Su says that the education ministry has already asked schools around the country to send vaccination permission forms to the parents of young children. Vaccination will now be available to children ages 6 to 11.
Su says that parents still have about a week to consider their decision before the vaccines start arriving at schools.
Taiwan also received over 1.3 million doses of the Moderna vaccine on Wednesday, and could start administering the vaccines to children as soon as Monday. The health ministry says that it has been more difficult to acquire the Pfizer BioNTech vaccines, but that it should close the deal this week.