CORONAVIRUS/New Moderna vaccine to be available for all from Oct. 11

Taipei, Oct. 3 (CNA) Moderna's latest vaccine targeting the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant of COVID-19 will be made available to all members of the public from Oct. 11, having already been offered to over 65s from Sept. 26 and to medical staff from Oct. 2, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Tuesday.

The vaccine, which the government granted emergency use authorization (EUA) on Sept. 13, should provide strong protection against the Omicron sublineage as the country anticipates a surge in new cases from mid-October, according to CDC Spokeswoman Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) at a regular COVID-19 briefing.

Tseng also said the CDC expects an outbreak of the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant, which is currently the dominant strain in Taiwan, to peak by late December with around 20,000 new cases per day.

She said the CDC has taken delivery of 2 million Moderna doses as of the end of September and will receive another 4 million by the end of 2023.

Currently, COVID-19 cases and deaths are relatively low in Taiwan, with an average of 35 local infections and four deaths from the disease reported per day between Sept. 26- Oct. 2, according to CDC data.