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KMT willing to help with COVID-19 vaccine procurement: KMT chairman

ROC Central News Agency

07/17/2021 05:01 PM

Taipei, July 17 (CNA) The main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) is more than willing to help procure more COVID-19 vaccines for Taiwan, even if it means having to discuss the issue with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said Saturday.

In a Facebook post, Chiang said his party was willing to go through the same process as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and Hon Hai's YongLin Charity and Education Foundation, which received authorization from the government in late June to purchase up to 10 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

The authorization came after representatives of the two organizations met with the president.

Chiang was responding to the comment by TSMC founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) at a virtual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum on Friday that Taiwan "still needs more vaccines, and needs them sooner."

He was representing President Tsai at the APEC Informal Leaders' Retreat, hosted virtually by New Zealand on Friday.

"We need help. Our vaccination coverage at present is less than 20 percent," the TSMC founder said during his 4-minute statement at the APEC event.

As of Saturday, just over 20 percent of Taiwan's population had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, but only 0.53 percent had been fully vaccinated with two doses.

 

Chiang said the tech founder's plea for more vaccines indicated that Taiwan did not have enough, and he expressed dismay that the central government had turned down his party's offer to procure vaccines for the country.

Earlier this week, the KMT announced that it was working with four counties governed by the party to purchase 5 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT) COVID-19 vaccine, and hoped the government would soon complete procedures to allow the counties to negotiate their own purchases of the vaccines.

In response, the Cabinet said the government will not approve any further plans to purchase additional doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on a case-by-case basis, as Taiwan will already likely take delivery of 15 million doses of that brand of vaccine in the near future.

"Evidently, the government is trying to stop the KMT from getting COVID-19 vaccines," Chiang said, even as Chang, who was speaking on behalf of the government at the APEC forum, revealed that Taiwan needed more vaccines.

He urged the government to not use vaccines as a political tool, and that securing enough vaccines should be a top priority that serves Taiwan's national interests.

(By Liu Kuan-ting and Ko Lin)

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