Taiwan''s first shipment of Moderna vaccines is expected to arrive on schedule by the end of this month. The vaccine was recognized this week by the World Vaccine Congress, which named it the best COVID vaccine available today. Taiwan''s infectious disease expert Huang Li-min says it''s not clear how the decision was reached, as there are similarly effective vaccines available. However, he says Moderna is a high-quality vaccine that can help prevent community transmission in the wake of the China Airlines outbreak.

In response to recent infection clusters at China Airlines and the Novotel quarantine hotel, health minister Chen Shih-chung said Thursday that the situation must be monitored until at least May 17. One expert says it’ll have to be watched for even longer.

Huang Li-min
Infectious Disease Society of Taiwan chairman
Right now we’re still able to link these clusters together – those of the CAL workers, those of the Novotel hotel workers and those who stayed at the hotel. However, the next wave of infections may be spread out, and it will be hard to link them with these clusters. It looks like this current wave has passed, but its impact is still present.

The expert fears there are infected people lurking undetected. It’s a problem that only widespread vaccination can resolve.

Roughly 240,000 doses remain of the AstraZeneca vaccines received by health officials. One hundred and sixty thousand of those doses will soon expire. To avoid having them go to waste, officials will offer vaccination to service members and people 65 and older starting next week.

Meanwhile, the first batch of Moderna vaccines is still on track to arrive this month. With an effectiveness rate of 94.5%, Moderna has been named the world’s best COVID vaccine by the World Vaccine Congress. Other vaccines considered were those by AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech.

Huang Li-min
Infectious Disease Society of Taiwan chairman
Actually, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are very close in performance. Both of them are RNA vaccines, so on a technical level they are similar. To say one is the best, I’m not sure what that is based on, but both are very good vaccines – and we will be importing Moderna.

The government has been stepping up efforts to encourage vaccination. Chen has also urged the public to be on alert, to wear masks and to report any abnormal health conditions.