CORONAVIRUS/Taiwan receives 2,000 child vaccine doses for testing

Taipei, May 4 (CNA) Taiwan received a child version of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for testing on Wednesday and is expected to take delivery of 770,000 doses of the vaccines in its first batch following a recently inked deal, according to Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中).

The shipment of 2,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children was delivered on board a China Airlines flight CI-062 from Frankfurt, Germany, and arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5:58 a.m. Wednesday, according to airport officials.

The 2,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are not for administration but for testing or experimentation, according to Chen, who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center, told a press briefing Wednesday.

There will be around 770,000 doses of the child version of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in the first batch, Chen added, but he did not elaborate on when they will be transported to Taiwan.

Taiwan signed a deal on April 28 to purchase about 4 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, consisting of 1.8 million doses for adults and 2.2 million doses for children.

Taiwan's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the same day authorized the vaccine for children aged 5-11 and recommended that they receive two doses with an interval of at least 12 weeks.

Meanwhile, Taiwan received 1,115,500 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine Wednesday, the seventh shipment this year from the company, Chen said, noting that the doses are due to expire on August 20.

The delivery was part of a second deal Taiwan signed in July 2021 with Moderna to procure 35 million doses for 2022-2023, 20 million of which are to be delivered this year, according to the CECC.

With Wednesday's shipment, Taiwan has received 7,935,100 doses from Moderna this year, according to CECC.