《TAIPEI TIMES》 CDC gives new COVID-19 vaccine availability dates

By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

An adapted COVID-19 vaccine targeting the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant would be available for people aged 65 or older from Tuesday next week, healthcare workers from Oct. 2 and all eligible people likely from Oct. 9, the Centers for Disease Control （CDC） said yesterday.

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Moderna’s Spikevax XBB.1.5 COVID-19 vaccine received emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday last week.

The centers on Tuesday afternoon received final confirmation of the schedule for the vaccine’s delivery and called a meeting with local health departments to decide on availability, CDC Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang （莊人祥） said.

People aged 65 or older would first be eligible for the vaccine from Tuesday next week, Chuang said.

As government-funded flu vaccinations would begin on Oct. 2 and more than 1 million eligible people would likely get their flu shot in the first week, eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine would only be expanded to healthcare workers on Oct. 2, he said.

“We have tentatively arranged for the eligibility to be expanded to all [eligible] people on Oct. 9, but we will see how the actual vaccinations go on Sept. 26 and Oct. 2 to decide whether it should be expanded on Oct. 9,” he said.

The WHO in May said that new formulations of COVID-19 vaccines should aim to induce antibody responses that neutralize XBB descendant lineages, such as by using a monovalent XBB.1 descendant lineage, said Chiu Cheng-hsun （邱政洵）, a professor at Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital’s Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases.

The number of COVID-19 cases is increasing slightly in some areas, especially in the US and Europe, and the most predominant imported and local cases are still the XBB subvariants, he said.

Immunogenicity studies show that the XBB.1.5-adapted vaccine protects against the XBB.1.5, XBB.1.16, XBB.2.3.2 subvariants, and even the newly emerging EG.5.1 subvariant, Chiu said.

As more than 70 percent of hospitalized COVID-19 cases this year were aged 65 or older, the CDC is urging older people to get vaccinated as soon as possible, Chuang said, adding that local governments would be giving out NT$500 vouchers or gifts, and at-home rapid test kits as encouragement.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES