TAIPEI (TAIWAN) – Taiwan authorities on Saturday granted emergency use authorisation for ‘AstraZeneca Plc’s coronavirus shot and the doses are slated to be rolled out within seven days of arrival.
The island had agreed in December to buy almost 20 million vaccine doses, including 10 million from AstraZeneca and 4.76 million from the COVAX global vaccine programme.
In case the paperwork is in order, the first shots can be administered within a week of arrival, said Food and Drug Administration Director-General Wu Shou-mei.
The first batch of 200,000 AstraZeneca vaccines provided by COVAX is expected to arrive next week.
The island will also receive five million doses from US drugmaker Moderna Inc. Wu said the process to grant emergency use approval is going on.
The government of Tsai Ing-wen plans to administer the vaccine to frontline health workers and quarantine workers first. It plans to get 30 million vaccine doses to cover about 65% of the population.
After Taiwan complained that Germany’s BioNTech SE pulled out of an agreement to sell 5 million doses at the last minute, the firm said it plans to provide the vaccine to the island.