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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Tzu Chi takes next step to buy vaccines
A participant in a motorcade near the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday holds up a placard reading: “I am under 18; I want BNT,” presumably referring to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Protest organizers urged the government to import more vaccines instead of waiting for locally developed shots to become available. Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
PRIVATE AID: Tzu Chi joins Yonglin and TSMC in working to purchase vaccines for the government, although the Executive Yuan had initially not approved the deals
By Lee Hsing-fang and Wang Chun-chi / Staff reporters
The Executive Yuan yesterday confirmed that it had given the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation the necessary documents for it to procure 5 million doses of the BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
The confirmation came after the foundation earlier said in a news release that it had signed documents with the government on Friday.
The foundation also thanked the government for its help, allowing it to hasten the process of acquiring vaccines and donating them back to the government.
The Executive Yuan yesterday said the foundation can follow the model it set for Hon Hai Precision Industry Co-affiliated Yonglin Charity and Education Foundation and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co （TSMC）, as the two entities also plan to acquire vaccines from BioNTech.
Tzu Chi on June 23 submitted its vaccine purchase plan to the Food and Drug Administration, but Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng （羅秉成） said the following day that it would not approve it.
However, the Executive Yuan on Wednesday approved the plan, after President Tsai Ing-wen （蔡英文） on June 26 talked with the foundation’s spiritual leader Master Cheng Yen （證嚴法師） and promised that the government would assist it in acquiring vaccines.
The foundation thanked the public for their encouragement, saying that Tsai and government officials had offered to help its efforts.
Lo yesterday also thanked the foundation for its efforts.
The government late last month authorized Yonglin and TSMC to represent it in negotiations to purchase up to 10 million doses of BioNTech’s vaccine, as the nation struggles with a vaccine shortage.
To date, Taiwan has received about 7 million doses of the AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines from Japan, the US, vaccine manufacturers and through the global vaccine sharing initiative COVAX, government data showed.
Additional reporting by CNA
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
