Government to buy more influenza vaccines amid surge in demand

Taipei, Feb. 6 (CNA) Taiwan's government will purchase an additional 100,000 doses of the influenza vaccine for at-risk groups in response to a surge in demand over the past week, according to the Executive Yuan.

At a press briefing in Taipei on Thursday, Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) had approved a plan to purchase an additional 100,000 doses of the government-funded flu vaccine.

The additional doses will be available at clinics nationwide as soon as Feb. 20, Tseng Shu-huai (曾淑慧), deputy head of the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (CDC), said at the press event.

The doses will be reserved for individuals aged 65 and over, toddlers over 6 months old, preschool children and those designated by the CDC as being at higher risk of contracting the disease, she added.

Tseng later told CNA that 100,000 doses would be purchased after it was calculated that an average of 10,000 people in at-risk groups had received the vaccine daily in the past week. She explained the flu season should taper off in the next two weeks.

According to the Cabinet, the government began stockpiling approximately 6.58 million doses of the government-funded flu vaccine last year before the campaign kicked off in October.

Starting at the beginning of 2025, everyone except infants under 6 months could access the remaining 800,000 doses.

However, the death of actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) at the age of 48 from flu-related complications on Feb. 2 sent shockwaves through society and drove up vaccination demand.

According to CDC data, 46,000 individuals were vaccinated on Wednesday and 43,000 government-funded doses are left.

At the briefing, Lee cited Cho as encouraging the unvaccinated in at-risk groups to get the shot to protect themselves.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet said the supply of self-funded flu vaccines was stable.