As of 5 p.m. on Monday (August 3), only 169,005, or 1.4%, of the 12.1 million COVID-19 vaccine registrants in Taiwan had chosen to take or switch their preference to the vaccine produced by Taiwan’s Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp (MVC), CNA reported.
According to Central Epidemic Command centre (CECC) statistics, out of the 12.1 million people who had registered their choice of vaccines, 820,648, or 6.78%, had selected only the AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine. Meanwhile, about 4.11 million, or 33.96%, had chosen only the Moderna shot, while only 169,005 people, or 1.40%, had checked the box for the MVC vaccine.
Regarding those who indicated they were less particular about which vaccine they receive, 6.21 million people, or 51.31%, said they were willing to receive either AZ or Moderna; 32,554, or 0.27%, would accept AZ or MVC; 125,121, or 1.03%, would settle for either Moderna or MVC; and 635,127, or 5.25%, would be okay with any of the three.
Altogether, the number of registrants who chose only the MVC vaccine plus those who chose MVC along with one or two other vaccines was 961,807.
Recently the supply of international vaccines has been unstable, creating favourable conditions for domestic vaccines to make inroads into the local market. The Taiwanese government has signed a contract with MVC to purchase 5 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine.
CECC head Chen Shih-chung said that only when more than 2.5 million people register for the domestic MVC vaccine will the government make a move to purchase more MVC doses. He said he believed the supply of the MVC vaccine will be more stable compared to international vaccines.
Another domestic COVID-19 vaccine developed by United Biomedical, Inc. Asia (UBI) is in the process of being screened for emergency use authorisation.
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4263385
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Category: Taiwan
