離開
進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Omicron BA.4/BA.5 shots set to arrive tomorrow
A health worker, right, administers a dose of COVID-19 vaccine to a woman in Taipei in an undated photograph. Photo: Tsai Ssu-pei, Taipei Times
By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter, with CNA
The first shipment of the Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent COVID-19 vaccine is expected to arrive tomorrow and could be available for use on Friday next week, the Central Epidemic Command Center （CECC） said yesterday.
The CECC on Oct. 27 announced that the Food and Drug Administration had reviewed and granted emergency use authorization to the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent COVID-19 vaccine boosters on Oct. 26.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang （王必勝）, who heads the CECC, yesterday said that the first shipment of the Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent vaccine is to arrive tomorrow and lot release testing is expected to take about seven or eight days, so the booster would be available on Friday next week at the earliest.
Moderna’s Omicron BA.1-adapted vaccine is currently available as booster shot to people aged 18 or older.
Meanwhile, the CECC yesterday announced that starting from Monday next week, the booster vaccination status or weekly rapid test requirement for workers of certain industries and venues that are “often exposed to strangers and where it is difficult to practice social distancing” would be lifted.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang （莊人祥） said following the removal of the booster vaccination status requirement for people attending religious events, group tours, going to the gym or eight special types of recreational venues, which started yesterday, the required booster vaccination status or weekly rapid test for workers of certain industries and venues would also be lifted.
They include eligible COVID-19 vaccine recipients who were in the first, second, third and seventh priority groups, as well as workers at correctional facilities, funeral parlors and 24 other types of venue, such as preschools, sports centers, community colleges, banqueting halls, nurseries and occupational training facilities.
The workers are still advised to wear a mask and test for COVID-19 if they have a fever or respiratory symptoms, and also to seek medical attention for diagnosis and treatment if they test positive for COVID-19, he said.
Separately, Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan （薛瑞元） yesterday said that people from low-income households and children aged 7 to 12 could soon become eligible for free rapid COVID-19 test kits under a government program that offers the tests to designated categories of recipients.
Under the government’s rapid test distribution scheme, people can purchase packs of five tests for NT$500, while people aged 65 or older and children under the age of 7 are eligible to obtain five free tests per month.
During a legislative hearing yesterday, Hsueh said his ministry is planning to expand the eligible categories, as the government currently has large stocks of rapid tests.
“[The government] now has an inventory of about 130 million rapid tests, many of which have an expiry date of late 2023 or early 2024, or about 13 to 14 months from now,” Hsueh told the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee.
“In light of the expiry dates, [we] need to use up at least 10 million tests per month to avoid a situation in which a large number expire” and go to waste, he said.
Hsueh also said that demand for rapid tests is likely to drop in the coming months, as COVID-19 infections decline.
As a result, the ministry is planning to start offering five free tests per month to people from low-income households and children aged 7 to 12, he said.
The CECC would be responsible for calculating the exact number of eligible recipients in those two categories and deciding when to implement the plan, Hsueh said.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
