Coronavirus: Taiwan to receive first shipment of BioNTech vaccine

Name: Vaccination vacations: Taiwanese head to Guam on holidays offering Covid-19 jabs
Uploaded: 2021-09-01T13:00:25.000Z
Duration: 2 min 6 s
Description: Vaccination vacations: Taiwanese head to Guam on holidays offering Covid-19 jabs

A delivery of 932,000 doses is expected to arrive on Thursday followed by a second batch next week, according to Xinhua

They are part of the 15 million sold to two tech firms and a charity group by Chinese distributor Fosun amid a political row with Beijing

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Taiwan’s vaccination roll-out has been slow and it has struggled to secure enough doses. Photo: Bloomberg

Lawrence Chung

Published: 9:00pm, 1 Sep 2021

Taiwan’s first shipment of the BioNTech Covid-10 vaccine is expected to arrive on Thursday in a highly anticipated boost to its mass vaccination drive.

The 932,000 doses from the German firm left Luxembourg on Wednesday, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.

“The second batch of about 910,000 doses of the vaccine will arrive in Taiwan a week later,” the report said.

They are part of the 15 million doses sold to two Taiwanese companies and a charity group by Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group, which has the exclusive right to distribute the BioNTech vaccine in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.

In July, Taipei agreed to have Foxconn founder Terry Gou, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and Buddhist charity the Tzu Chi Foundation buy the doses from Fosun under the condition that they came to the island directly from BioNTech.

The doses will be donated to Taiwan’s health authorities to be distributed across the self-ruled island.

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Vaccination vacations: Taiwanese head to Guam on holidays offering Covid-19 jabs