A new round of COVID-19 vaccinations will be available next week for people looking to get their second jab, including those who qualify for the vaccine mix-and-match option, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced Friday.
Bookings for the 16th round of the vaccine rollout can be made on the government’s COVID-19 vaccination website from Nov. 29-30, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (???) said at a daily press briefing.
Chen, who also heads the CECC, said the second jab will target individuals aged 18 and over who had their first shot of the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT) vaccines at least four weeks ago, or the AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine eight weeks ago.
The new round will also apply to people aged 18 and over who received their first AstraZeneca shot on or before Oct. 7 and want to get a different brand of vaccine, whether Moderna or Pfizer-BNT.
The appointment window for the Pfizer-BNT vaccine will be from 10 a.m. on Nov. 29 to 12 p.m. on Nov. 30, the health minister said, noting that appointments can be made from 2 p.m. on Nov. 29 to 12 p.m. on Nov. 30. for the AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines.
The vaccines will be administered from Dec. 2-8.
Roughly 2.42 million people are eligible to receive jabs in the 16th round of vaccinations, according to the CECC.
Concerning people who have registered for the mix-and-match option, around 49,000 were fine with receiving either of the mRNA vaccines (Moderna and Pfizer-BNT), while the registration for mixing with only Moderna was roughly 16,000, and about 15,000 people signed up for only Pfizer-BNT.
The upcoming round of online appointments will cater only to those waiting to get their second jab, Chen said, indicating that the focus is to increase Taiwan’s two-dose vaccination rate.
People who have yet to receive their first COVID-19 vaccine shot can now make appointments with designated hospitals or clinics rather than having to go through the government’s online vaccination platform, Chen explained.
Based on the latest data published by the CECC on Thursday, Taiwan’s first-dose vaccination rate stood at 77.46 percent, while the second-dose rate was 51.75 percent.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel