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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Medigen vaccination to start on Aug. 23: CECC
Medigen COVID-19 vaccine. Photo courtesy of FDA
LOCAL JAB: The CECC expects to have 600,000 — or even as high as 800,000 — doses available for the sixth round of national vaccinations, Chen Shih-chung said
By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
The Central Epidemic Command Center （CECC） yesterday said that public registration for the Medigen COVID-19 vaccine is to end at noon tomorrow, and the vaccine would be administered between Aug. 23 and Aug. 29.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung （陳時中）, who heads the center, said that the Medigen vaccine would be offered in the sixth round of national vaccinations.
People who are willing to receive the Medigen vaccine should register with the national online COVID-19 vaccination booking system before 12pm tomorrow, he said at the daily news briefing.
Eligible recipients would receive a text message and be allowed to book an appointment between 10am on Monday next week and noon on Wednesday next week for vaccinations the following week, he said.
As of 1pm yesterday, more than 1.06 million people have selected Medigen as their preferred brand of vaccine in the online booking system, CECC data showed.
A few batches of the Medigen vaccine are currently going through lot release testing, and more than 600,000 doses — or hopefully 800,000 doses — are expected to be available in the sixth round of vaccinations, Chen said.
Prioritization for receiving the Medigen vaccine will follow the general priority list for COVID-19 vaccination, he said.
At a separate setting, National Taiwan University College of Public Health professor Tony Chen （陳秀熙） said that a UK study comparing the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine in people who have received two doses suggests that countries facing a vaccine shortage can extend the interval between receiving the two doses and that it might even increase their protection against COVID-19.
Asked to comment on the matter, CECC specialist advisory panel convener Chang Shan-chwen （張上淳） said that the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended an interval of eight to 12 weeks, and the CECC follows an interval of 10 to 12 weeks.
He added that the panel does not think it would be a problem even if the interval is longer than 12 weeks.
The center was also asked to comment on writer and film director Giddens Ko （柯景騰）, also known as Jiu Ba-dao （九把刀）, writing on Facebook that his 57-year-old mother-in-law had died four days after receiving an AstraZeneca vaccine shot on July 26, although the only problem she had in her last health check in March was high cholesterol.
Chang said high cholesterol is not a contraindication for any COVID-19 vaccines, and there are no studies that suggest people with high cholesterol could have a strong adverse reaction to the vaccine.
Asked if sudden death after receiving a COVID-19 jab among younger people is a rising trend, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang （莊人祥）, who is the CECC spokesman, said one reason for the increase could be because they belonged to the ninth priority group eligible for vaccination.
The ninth priority group is people aged 18 to 64, who have a high-risk disease, a rare disease or catastrophic illness, he said, adding that the reports of death after vaccination do not indicate a causal relationship between receiving the vaccine and death.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
