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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Bookings in sixth round of vaccinations to start
A person holds a syringe containing the Medigen COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday. Photo: CNA
BREAKTHROUGH CASES: The CECC said that since July 2, 8.2 percent of the imported cases it has documented have been among people who were fully vaccinated
By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
People who are eligible for the sixth round of the national COVID-19 vaccination program will be able to book an appointment from 10am tomorrow, the Central Epidemic Command Center （CECC） told its daily news conference in Taipei yesterday, as it reported three locally transmitted infections, four imported cases and two deaths.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung （陳時中）, who heads the center, said that the locally developed Medigen COVID-19 vaccine is available in the sixth round, and eligible recipients can book an appointment from 10am tomorrow until 12pm on Wednesday.
There will be more than 600,000 doses of the Medigen vaccine available for this round, and three groups are eligible, Chen said.
The three groups are: elderly people aged 65 or older （born on or before Dec. 31, 1956）; adults in the ninth priority group aged 20-64 （inclusive, born on or before Aug. 23, 2001）; and people aged 36-64 （inclusive, born on or before Dec. 31, 1985）, the Centers for Disease Control’s （CDC） Web site says.
The eligible recipients will receive a text message informing them to make an appointment, and the vaccination sessions are from Aug. 23 to 29, Chen said, adding that if more doses of the vaccine pass lot release testing in the next few days, the CECC might add them to this round of vaccinations.
He said that 133,514 doses were administered on Friday and vaccination coverage — people who have had at least one shot — has reached 38.77 percent.
Reporters asked whether the CECC would change border control policies after it on Friday reported the first case of a person infected with the B.1.621 variant of SARS-CoV-2, a woman who returned from the US.
The CECC does not have plans to ease restrictions for arrivals and the border control measures that are in place will continue, Chen said.
CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo （羅一鈞）, deputy chief of the CECC’s medical response division, said that 145 imported cases have been reported since July 2, when quarantine rules were tightened for arrivals, requiring them to get tested three times — before, during and upon ending quarantine.
Among them, 40 had vaccination records — with 14 having had only one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 26 having had two, Lo said.
However, only 14 of the 26 had received their second shot at least two weeks prior to arriving in Taiwan, and two of them tested positive during the vaccination process and wait time, he said.
Therefore, there have been only 12 cases of COVID-19 breakthroughs — fully vaccinated people who still contracted the disease — reported in Taiwan, which is about 8.2 percent of the imported cases, Lo said.
Asked about remarks by a medical researcher regarding a correlation between people with weakened immune systems and extended COVID-19 incubation periods, Lo said that health officials have observed that such cases show longer communicable, not incubation, periods.
While most infected people have viral loads that drop to the level required for release from isolation within 10 days, people with immunodeficiency, rheumatic diseases or who are taking immunosuppressants have high viral loads for longer periods, even up to two or three weeks, he said.
Such cases are also at a higher risk of developing serious COVID-19 systems, so they are eligible for monoclonal antibody treatments, he said, adding that they usually face longer hospital stays.
Two of the local cases reported yesterday had been in New Taipei City and one in Taipei, with two testing positive during isolation, while the infection source of the other is still under investigation, it said.
The four imported cases were from Indonesia, the Philippines, Russia and Vietnam, CECC data showed.
The two people who died, a man in his 50s and a woman in her 90s who had chronic ailments, were both released from isolation and discharged from hospital before they died, the data showed.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
