President Tsai Ing-wen says the government is taking a dual-track approach to ensuring that Taiwan has enough vaccines to combat COVID-19. Tsai was speaking Thursday while meeting with health care workers and winners of the biotech medical care quality award.
Tsai said the vaccines that Taiwan has purchased from abroad will be available in the second quarter of this year. Front-line heath care workers and those who are most vulnerable will be vaccinated first.
To ensure that Taiwan has enough vaccines, Tsai said two local companies are also working on phase 2 clinical trials for their own COVID-19 vaccines.
Taiwan is expected to purchase 20 million doses of vaccines from abroad. In addition to getting vaccines through COVAX, a global procurement mechanism led by the WHO, Taiwan has also signed a contract with the US-based Moderna to purchase over five million vaccine doses.