Taiwan is working hard to get the almost 20 million COVID-19 vaccines it has ordered as soon as possible even in the face of global shortages, amid domestic pressure to speed up supplies even as infections fall, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Monday.
Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard for Reuters:
Taiwan is ramping up its vaccination campaign amid a spike in domestic infections after months of relative safety, but has so far given shots to fewer than 2% of its more than 23 million people, though millions of additional doses are on their way.
In a live broadcast from the presidential office, Tsai said with the pandemic remaining serious around the world, vaccine supplies had unable to keep up with demand, and all governments, including Taiwan’s, were working hard to get shots…
The island reported 347 domestic COVID-19 cases on Monday, including 73 cases added to the totals for recent days, as it continues to readjust its infection numbers amid delays in reporting positive tests. That marked the second consecutive day in which new cases were below 400, after a rare uptick in domestic cases concentrated in Taipei and its nearby cities.
Terry Gou, the billionaire founder of major Apple Inc supplier Foxconn, said on Saturday his charity plans to apply to import five million doses of BioNTech SE’s COVID-19 vaccine into Taiwan.
MacDailyNews Take: Thanks to Terry Gou for stepping up for Taiwan!