The primary batch of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines arrived in Taiwan on Thursday morning, well being officers mentioned. The supply of the 930,000 doses got here after a monthslong struggle to accumulate BioNTech’s vaccines on the island.
In Could, President Tsai Ing-wen attributed the delay to “China’s intervention.”
A Chinese language firm, Fosun Pharma, claimed unique business rights to the distribution of the BioNTech vaccine in Taiwan, whose frosty relationship with China has intensified in recent months. Two Taiwanese company giants, a charity group and a Buddhist basis stepped into the morass in July to supply an answer.
Foxconn, a significant assembler of Apple’s iPhones, and TSMC, which makes the chips present in Apple devices, agreed with the YongLin Basis, a charity arrange by the founding father of Foxconn, to purchase 10 million doses of the BioNTech vaccine from Fosun Pharma and donate them to the Taiwanese authorities. The Tzu Chi Basis, a Buddhist group, agreed to buy and donate an extra 5 million BioNTech photographs from the Chinese language firm for Taiwan’s vaccination effort.
Earlier this week, the Taiwan Facilities for Illness Management launched a press release asserting that the BioNTech vaccine could be prioritized for these between the ages of 12 and 17, with leftover doses administered to these between 18 and 22.