Individuals who received their first AstraZeneca (AZ) COVID-19 vaccine dose eight weeks ago will be eligible to make an appointment directly with a designated medical facility to receive their second dose instead of having to wait until at least Nov. 20, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said Saturday.
People who received their first AZ dose on and before Sep. 11 are now eligible to book an appointment with a designated medical facility to obtain a second dose of the same brand with immediate effect.
Appointments can be booked until the current vaccination round ends next Friday, CECC spokesperson Chuang Jen-hsiang (???) announced at a daily press briefing.
While those wishing to receive their second dose can book directly with a medical facility, the government's online registration and appointment system stopped accepting bookings on Thursday.
Prior to the announcement, only people who were vaccinated with their first AZ dose on or before Aug. 27 were allowed to make an appointment to receive their second dose in the current vaccination round.
In addition, adults who received their first Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT) vaccine shot four weeks ago that have not made a booking to obtain their second dose of the same brand are now also eligible to make an appointment directly with a designated medical facility until next Friday, Chuang said.
Previously, the CECC's online system was open to allow people aged 12 and above vaccinated with a first dose of BNT four weeks ago to make an appointment online for their second dose.
However, Chuang said when and how those who are eligible could book their vaccination appointments would be decided by local governments, which are responsible for distributing vaccines they receive from the CECC to designated medical facilities in their jurisdictions.
He added the CECC's online system would still be the main portal for people to register and book their vaccines in subsequent vaccination rounds.
The announcement was made with the CECC racing to reach its goal of having more than 60 percent of the population in Taiwan fully vaccinated with two vaccine doses at the end of the year. The CECC said last week the country would only consider easing its strict border control measures once 70 percent of the population had received at least one vaccine dose, with over 60 percent fully vaccinated.
As of Saturday, approximately 8.6 million people, or 36.89 percent of the population, have obtained the two vaccine doses needed to be fully vaccinated.
However, the country's vaccine rollout appears to have slowed recently, with Chuang admitting Saturday that the number of people who made an appointment on the CECC's system to get a vaccine in the current vaccination round was less than expected.
He said people who were eligible to make an appointment to receive their first vaccine dose in the current vaccination round had already had several chances to do so, so it was likely these people did not want to be vaccinated.
He added that the CECC did not see a marked decline in the number of appointments made on its system for second vaccine doses.
Meanwhile, the CECC said vaccines that are approaching their expiration dates will also need to be used up.
These include a shipment of 594,000 doses of AZ expected to arrive in Taiwan Saturday evening, which the CECC says will expire at the end of November.
The latest shipment is the second delivery of the vaccine purchased from the U.K.-Swedish pharmaceutical company to arrive in Taiwan within a week.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel