TAIPEI — Taiwan is in talks with US companies about making
their
COVID-19 vaccines, following similar talks with European firms, Health
Minister Chen Shih-chung said on Saturday.
اضافة اعلان
Taiwan, like much of the world, has been trying to speed up
its vaccination program following a spike in domestic cases, but has been
stymied by global supply shortages.
Chen told reporters that they previously had talks with
European companies he did not name about producing their vaccines under
license.
“Only recently have we started to have talks with US
companies, to see if it’s possible or not to carry out relevant subcontracting
work,” he added, without providing details.
Taiwan has ordered around five million shots from US firm
Moderna Inc, of which 150,000 have arrived. It has ordered 10 millions shots
from British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca PLC.
Taiwan, also in talks with BioNTech SE, blames China - which
claims the island as its own territory — for blocking a deal with the German
company earlier this year.
Johnson & Johnson said on Friday it has been in talks
with Taiwan about providing its COVID-19 vaccine to the island since last year.
Around 3 percent of Taiwan’s 23.5 million people have
received at least one shot of a vaccine. Japan on Friday donated 1.24 million
doses of AstraZeneca’s
COVID-19 vaccine.
Although Taiwan’s domestic cases have not exploded, they are
not falling dramatically either. Chen announced 511 new domestic infections on
Saturday.
While cases have been concentrated in Taipei and its
neighboring city, health authorities are trying to stop an outbreak at two chip
packagers in Miaoli, in the north of the island, King Yuan Electronics and
Greatek Electronics.
While case numbers in Taiwan’s main chip hub of Hsinchu have
remained low, the government, working with the military, has set up testing
sites there to ensure they can identify any rapid increase.
In a live broadcast from her office on Saturday, President
Tsai Ing-wen said she had asked the Hsinchu and Miaoli governments to set up an
“anti-epidemic combat alliance” to protect production.
“Every second counts, and we must guard the line of defense
against the epidemic,” she said.
However, the government has signaled it is not planning for
now on further raising the alert level, now one rung below full lockdown.
“Discussions are continuing with experts, but at present
there have been no suggestions for a lockdown,” Chen said.
Taiwan has reported 10,956 cases since the pandemic began,
with 225 deaths.
Read more business
.jpg)
.jpg)
