The latest round of vaccinations began on Friday. This time, more than 1.8 million people are expected to get the jab in the first five days. To facilitate the vaccination process, the CECC set up an additional 12 vaccination sites across the nation, one of which is at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall where 12 stations operate simultaneously in an assembly line fashion. The site is staffed by medical workers from the Taipei Veterans General Hospital. According to a hospital administrator, 95% of registrants showed up for their appointment.

Early Sunday morning, many people turned up at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall to get their Pfizer vaccine. This particular vaccination site is manned by the medical staff from the Taipei Veterans General Hospital, which dispatches 140 of its personnel every day to the national monument. With 12 stations set up to simultaneously administer shots, authorities expect to vaccinate 2.6 million people in five days.

Vaccine recipient
It’s pretty smooth. The line was well planned and it moved without a hitch. I just took whatever was available. I didn’t pick and choose.

Vaccine recipient
It was hard to set up an appointment at first, really hard. There were no openings. As soon as the system opened, all the slots were filled

Hou Ming-chih
Vice Superintendent, Taipei Veterans General Hospital
Four thousand eight hundred and thirty people received the vaccine here yesterday, so 95% of people showed up for their appointment. As far as I know, this is the highest turn-up at a vaccination site. I think it’s 95.3%, so everything went smoothly.

As of the morning of the 23rd, more than 15.55 million people had received one dose of a COVID vaccine, reaching a national coverage rate of 66%. An additional 6.16 million people had received two doses, reaching a national coverage rate of 26%. As the nation’s vaccine coverage rates continue to climb, Taiwan is bracing for the Lunar New Year when Taiwanese expats traditionally return home for the holidays. With quarantine hotels already nearing fully booked, many are wondering if quarantine regulations can be loosened.

Hwang Kao-pin
China Medical University Hospital
What’s relatively more important is whether these returnees are fully vaccinated, that they got the shots 14 days prior to arrival. People in the same household should be fully vaccinated. Only then we can consider the option of home quarantine.

Doctors feel that reinstating home quarantine is the most feasible option. However, how testing will be carried out is still an obstacle to be solved. The CECC is studying all the options for relaxing quarantine measures. Whether by reducing the number of quarantine days or reinstating home quarantine, the authorities hope to make life easier for returning expats while effectively preventing the spread of COVID.