Taiwan to start COVID shots next week with AstraZeneca vaccine

TAIPEI: Taiwan will begin its COVID-19 vaccination programme on Monday using AstraZeneca Plc shots, its health minister said on Friday, with Premier Su Tseng-chang volunteering to be inoculated first to underscore confidence in its safety.

Taiwan's first vaccines - 117,000 doses of the AstraZeneca shot - arrived on the island earlier this month from a South Korean factory. Health Minister Chen Shih-chung told reporters that officials had now given the go-ahead for the shots to start being administered from Monday at 57 vaccination sites around the island.