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Taipei starts rollout of second-generation Moderna vaccine

ROC Central News Agency

09/24/2022 04:58 PM

Taipei, Sept. 24 (CNA) Taipei began offering Moderna's second-generation Spikevax COVID-19 vaccine to eligible recipients on Saturday amid a new surge of COVID-19 infections driven by the BA.5 subvariant.

According to the city's Department of Health, 18,622 people have reserved shots online on its "COVID-19 vaccination booking system," which offered 40,000 appointment slots between Sept. 24 and Oct. 2 at vaccination stations and community clinics.

Another 8,345 slots for jabs of the Moderna booster will be available from Sept. 26 to Oct. 2 at COVID-19 outpatient clinics in 18 major Taipei hospitals, including National Taiwan University Hospital, MacKay Memorial Hospital and Cathay General Hospital.

People can simply show up at a hospital without an appointment to get a jab under this system (as long as slots remain available), but they can also book appointments in advance.

The vaccine -- to be used only as a booster shot -- is currently available to people aged 65 and over, residents of long-term care facilities, and immunocompromised adults who received their previous vaccine dose at least three months ago, the department said.

Taiwan took delivery of a total of 1.607 million doses of the updated Moderna vaccine on Sept. 17 and 18, which targets both the original coronavirus from 2020 and the Omicron subvariant BA.1.

The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) has said the vaccine is also effective against the BA.5 variant of Omicron, which currently accounts for around 60 percent of COVID-19 infections in the country.

Aside from the second-generation vaccines, Taipei's vaccination booking system can also be used to reserve appointments to get shots of the standard Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Medigen COVID-19 vaccines, as well as the Pfizer vaccine for young children, the health department said.

Aside from Taipei, the cities of New Taipei and Kaohsiung and Pingtung County also began distributing the updated Moderna vaccines on Saturday.

(By Chen Yi-hsuan and Lee Hsin-Yin)

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