Day: November 17, 2021

People other than medical workers will soon have the option of being vaccinated against COVID-19 using different vaccine brands for the first time since Taiwan's vaccine rollout began in late March.

Registration for the mix-and-match approach will be open on the government's 1922 vaccination website from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) spokesperson Chuang Jen-hsiang (???) said at a press briefing Wednesday.

The roughly 2.25 million people who have received one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine and have not yet gotten a second dose will be able to register their willingness to get a Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech jab, Chuang said.

Registering a preference does not commit an individual to the mix-and-match approach but will give people that option when the CECC opens slots for appointments in the future, he said.

Asked why the registration period is being limited to six hours, Chuang said the CECC simply wanted to use it to gauge the popularity of the mix-and-match option so that it can make appropriate preparations for future vaccination rounds.

More registration periods will be opened in the future, he said.

Currently, vaccine mixing is only an option for medical workers, who can choose the Moderna vaccine as their second shot if they received their first jab of the AstraZeneca vaccine at least 10 weeks earlier.

Based on research done by National Taiwan University Hospital, mixing the AstraZeneca and Moderna jabs gave a higher level of antibodies but a higher probability of side effects than two jabs of the AstraZeneca vaccine, CECC official Lo Yi-chun (???) said.

The research team also found that results improved with longer waits between the two shots, Lo said while promising more details on the study on Thursday.

To date, 17.93 million of Taiwan's 23.41 million population, or 76.58 percent, has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 10.23 million people, or 43.69 percent, have received the two doses needed to be fully vaccinated, CECC data shows.

Chuang on Wednesday encouraged people to get their second vaccine jab when they meet the recommended interval between shots.

As the supply of vaccines has stabilized, people can either choose to use the 1922 platform to make appointments to get vaccinated, or they can reserve a slot directly with hospitals and clinics offering the vaccine, Chuang said.

Getting fully vaccinated will better protect people against COVID-19 and make international travel easier as more and more countries are using proof of vaccination as a condition for entry, he said.

The CECC will also consider easing COVID-19-related restrictions if Taiwan reaches a 2nd-dose vaccination rate of 60 percent, he said.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

A magnitude 5.2 earthquake in northeastern Taiwan Wednesday morning delayed 2,485 passengers traveling on Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) trains, the administration said later in the day.

The temblor, which struck at sea off Yilan County at 10:25 a.m., caused TRA trains to reduce their travel speed between Su'aoxin and Nan'ao stations on the North Link Line as a precaution, impacting passengers traveling on 16 separate trains, the TRA explained.

Normal operations were resumed at 12:36 p.m., the TRA said. There were no reports of damage or injuries in other areas due to the earthquake, which registered a maximum intensity of 4 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale in Yilan.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

A man suspected of trespassing on Kaohsiung's Tsoying Naval Base using forged documents was arrested Tuesday, after fleeing while his ID was being checked by base security Friday.

The suspect, a former Marine Corps major surnamed Chen (?), was arrested by Kaohsiung police and Military Police at his rented apartment in the city's Sanmin District, the police said Wednesday.

Chen, 34, who reportedly used to serve at Tsoying, is currently being questioned by police on suspicion of illegally entering the military base and holding forged documents.

The arrest was made after the police from the city's Tsoying Precinct received a report Saturday from the naval base saying that Chen had fled after he was found to have entered the military installation using a forged identification document.

According to a press release issued by the Navy, Chen successfully entered the base compound at 11:27 p.m. Friday, and, as he was leaving just under an hour later at 12:24 a.m., he was asked by security guards at the base's exit for his ID.

Chen then fled from the base while one of the guards double-checked the authenticity of his ID, with guards eventually determining it to be a fake.

The naval base had collected all evidence pertaining to the case, including CCTV footage, and handed it to the police to help find Chen, the Navy said, adding that nothing had been stolen by Chen while he was in the military compound, as the base's offices were locked.

Local media reports said Chen had filed for an early discharge, which took effect in November, after being accused of receiving an inappropriate loan.

A task force now suspects that Chen might have been forced to serve as a Chinese spy and break into the base in order to pay back the money he owed, reports said.

Meanwhile, Vice Defense Minister Wang Hsin-Lung (???) told lawmakers at a legislative hearing on Wednesday that the incident "should have never happened," blaming the suspected breach on major negligence by the guards who let Chen enter the base in the first place.

The Navy has strengthened security checks for all those who enter the base to make sure a similar incident will not happen again, Wang said.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

Three suspects have been detained and held incommunicado for their alleged involvement in a case that involves the illegal hacking and sale of information from elementary, junior and senior high schools in Taiwan, Tainan District Prosecutors Office said Wednesday.

In the case, as many as 7.5 million items of information were stolen and illegally sold to cram schools by a criminal ring, which earned millions of Taiwan dollars as a result, according to prosecutors.

Acting on a tip, Tainan prosecutors arrested a man surnamed Chen (?) in July for peddling the information of elementary and secondary school students using dummy cellphone accounts.

Chen was arrested and held incommunicado after being questioned by prosecutors, which led to the detention in September of three alleged accomplices -- a 47-year-old math teacher surnamed Tsai (?) who taught at a cram school, a 36-year-old hacker Chai (?) and another 27-year-old hacker identified as Chang (?).

Following an investigation, Chai and Chang were taken into custody and held incommunicado, while Tsai was released on NT$100,000 (US$3,600) bail.

Findings by prosecutors indicate that Tsai started to collude with computer-savvy Chai and Chang in 2015 to steal students' personal information by hacking school computer systems or those of local education authorities around Taiwan.

Both Chai and Chang have a record of illegally hacking websites. Chang was even indicted for doing so when at university.

Information stolen by the three was usually passed to Chen by Tsai for sale to scram schools, with Chai and Chang taking up 90 percent of the illegal gains.

Each item, containing the personal name, school name, grade, class, ID number, parents' names, home address, phone number and test scores of a student was sold for NT$10-20, according to prosecutors.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel