《TAIPEI TIMES》 Moderna vaccines arrive in Taoyuan

SCARCE: Despite the new batch’s arrival, there would be limited doses available after the next vaccination round, which is to begin this week, the minister of health said

By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

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A batch of 99,600 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Taiwan yesterday afternoon, the Central Epidemic Command Center （CECC） said, as it reported four locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and three deaths — the lowest daily case count since a nationwide level 3 alert was issued on May 19.

The batch is the fifth procured from Moderna Inc and arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 3:45pm yesterday. The doses were transported to a cold chain storage facility for lot release testing after it passed an air cargo examination at the airport.

Of the doses purchased directly from the US-based vaccine maker, a total of 1,249,600 have so far arrived in Taiwan, the CECC said.

Asked who would be eligible to receive the newly arrived vaccines, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung （陳時中）, who heads the center, said that as the number of doses is relatively small, the CECC has not yet decided how to distribute them.

It would begin to discuss how to make the most effective use of them, he added.

As more than 3.9 million people who registered with the national online COVID-19 vaccination booking system only selected the Moderna vaccine, the center was asked if these people would have a chance of getting vaccinated soon.

Chen said that there would be limited doses available for people to receive two doses of the Moderna vaccine after the next round of vaccinations, which would be administered starting this week.

With the 2.5 million doses donated by the US, Taiwan is expected to receive a total of 8.55 million doses of the Moderna vaccine this year, which would be enough for about 4.2 million people, he said.

As about 2.9 million people received a first dose and about 520,000 doses would be administered next week, “there will not be much left to offer in the future,” he said.

Centers for Disease Control （CDC） Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang （莊人祥）, who is the CECC’s spokesperson, said that there are about 435,000 people who would receive a first dose of the Moderna vaccine next week, so about 3.335 million people would have received a first dose of the Moderna vaccine after the next round of vaccinations is completed.

Therefore, there would be fewer than 1 million people who might become eligible for two doses of the Moderna vaccine, he said.

Meanwhile, Chen said that two of the four new domestic cases tested positive during isolation, and the infection sources of three cases have been identified.

Of the local cases, two were reported in Taipei, and one each in New Taipei City and Taoyuan, he said.

“We can see that the daily case counts are steadily dropping, so we hope that contact tracing can be performed more precisely when the case counts are low to gain more control over the COVID-19 situation,” Chen said.

The CECC also reported three imported cases — travelers from Malaysia, Turkey and the US — and three deaths — two men and one woman, aged between 60 and 90, who all had underlying health conditions. They died between July 31 and Aug. 1.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES