By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
COVID-19 vaccination eligibility is to be expanded to include all healthcare facility workers from Tuesday next week, the Central Epidemic Command Center （CECC） said yesterday.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung （陳時中）, who heads the center, said that the expanded eligibility would include healthcare workers and non-healthcare workers at hospitals and clinics, as well as personnel at centralized quarantine facilities.
Vaccinations began on Monday last week, but primarily for frontline healthcare workers at designated COVID-19 hospitals.
Chen said that as of Tuesday, 12,605 people had received a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, but for as many people as possible with higher risk of infection to get vaccinated soon, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices suggested expanding eligibility.
There are about 200,000 healthcare workers who are eligible, which would expand to 429,857 next week, he said.
An additional 16 hospitals would be added to the 87 hospitals where the vaccine is offered, while those getting a jab should schedule an appointment and bring their National Health Insurance card and professional certificate, he said.
As there are about 117,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Taiwan, which have an expiration date of June 15, the center would monitor the vaccination situation and after Tuesday next week assess whether eligibility needs to be expanded further so vaccines are not wasted.
Centers for Disease Control （CDC） Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang （莊人祥）, the CECC’s spokesman, said that 6,528 vaccine recipients had registered with the CDC’s Taiwan V-Watch online vaccination follow-up system and, as of Monday, 541 had reported their conditions for seven consecutive days.
An analysis of self-reported symptoms showed that the most common complaint was “pain at the injection site,” which 61.9 percent reported on the day of the injection, followed by “fatigue,” which more than half reported on the first day, Chuang said.
Other common self-reported symptoms included headache, chills and high body temperature, which were mostly reported in the first two days, he said.
About 25 percent reported a fever — or a temperature of at least 38°C — after getting the jab, although most said that the fever ended after two to three days, he said.
Six to 8 percent reported that post-vaccine symptoms affected their ability to work in the first two days, he said.
Meanwhile, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices convenor Chong Inn-wen （鍾飲文） said that assessments of domestically produced vaccines are nearly the same as what the US requires to issue an emergency use authorization.
A meeting this month would discuss data requirements for approving domestically produced vaccines, Chong said.
Separately, Tourism Bureau Deputy Director-General Trust Lin （林信任） said that the first “travel bubble” flight to Palau would take off at 2:30pm today from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and return at 10:50pm on Sunday.
As of 3pm yesterday, 100 people had joined group tours on the first flight, Lin said, adding that they would be asked to arrive at the airport by 8am to undergo a polymerase chain reaction test from 9am, with results expected before noon.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES