Taiwan clears AstraZeneca vaccine, shots might start on Monday | Al Jazeera

Taiwan has given regulatory approval to AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine and might start giving the first inoculations as early as Monday, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said.

Taiwan’s first vaccines – 117,000 doses of the AstraZeneca shot – arrived on the island earlier this month.

In a video statement late on Wednesday, Chen said the doses, which came from a South Korean factory, had cleared the last of the checks by Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration.

The aim is to start dispensing them from as early as Monday, he added.

Taiwan is prioritising health workers in the first wave of its vaccination programme and about 60,000 people are in line to get the first vaccinations, Chen said....