CORONAVIRUS/First batch of COVID-19 vaccines arrives in Taiwan

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Taipei, March 3 (CNA) Taiwan has received its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX allocation program, airport sources have told CNA.

The vaccines, produced by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, arrived at Taoyuan International Airport at 10:25 a.m. on a Korean Air flight, according to the source, who declined to be named.

It is unclear how many doses were included in the shipment, though COVAX previously said it will allocate 200,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Taiwan in its first round of distribution.

Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who also heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), is expected to confirm how many doses Taiwan has received and how they will be distributed at a press briefing Wednesday afternoon.

To date, Taiwan has secured the future supply of 10 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, 5.05 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, and 4.76 million doses of vaccines through COVAX.