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TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan raised its COVID-19 alert level for the whole island on Wednesday as domestic cases continued to rise, but will get 400,000 more AstraZeneca Plc COVID-19 vaccine doses from the COVAX global sharing programme.
Taiwan has reported more than 1,000 new infections during the past week or so, leading to new curbs in the capital, Taipei, and shocking a population that had become accustomed to life carrying on almost normally.
Announcing another 267 local infections, up from 240 on Tuesday, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said that although the across Taiwan.
There was no need to order a full lockdown for now, and people should not worry too much, he added.
The vaccines are offloaded from an EVA Airways plane. CNA photo May 19, 2021
Taipei, May 19 (CNA) Taiwan took delivery of 400,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Wednesday, which may be available to the public in a week amid an escalation of domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).
The vaccines, shipped from Amsterdam, arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 3:34 p.m.
CECC commander and Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said the vaccines were the second batch Taiwan has received from the global vaccine sharing program COVAX.
The vaccines, which will expire on Aug. 31, could complete safety testing and begin to be distributed by as early as May 26, he said, adding that some of them will be reserved for at-risk personnel such as medical workers.
CNA file photo
Taipei, May 19 (CNA) A shipment of 400,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses made by the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca is slated to arrive in Taiwan around 4 p.m. Wednesday, according to Cabinet Spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成).
Lo said the flight carrying the 400,000 AstraZeneca doses that Taiwan has purchased through COVAX, the global initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries, departed from Amsterdam at 3 a.m. Wednesday.
Lo s statement was based on a briefing by Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), given to Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) earlier Wednesday.
To date, Taiwan has received 117,000 vaccine doses purchased directly from AstraZeneca, with an expiration date of June 15, and 199,200 of the same brand supplied through COVAX, which are due to expire on May 31.
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(Bloomberg) France loosened a months-long lockdown on Wednesday, allowing restaurants to serve customers on terraces and cinemas and museums to reopen to the public. New York state, the original U.S. epicenter of the pandemic, reported its lowest infection rate since September.
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In India, daily deaths reached a record, even as reported new infections declined from the highs of early May. Taiwan extended a soft lockdown island-wide, while the virus continued to rampage through Thailand’s prisons.
New cases in Malaysia rose to the highest since the pandemic began, even after the government imposed nationwide restrictions on movement to curb the spread. Serbia received a delivery of 440,000 vaccine doses from China to immunize its military.