TAIPEI (XINHUA) - Taiwan's epidemic monitoring agency has said that a locally developed Covid-19 vaccine is likely to go on the market as soon as June next year.

A website was launched on Wednesday (Nov 11) allowing local residents to register as participants in clinical trials for locally developed Covid-19 vaccines, with the aim of recruiting at least 20,000 volunteers by Nov 30, said Mr Chen Shih-chung, the agency's chief, at a weekly press briefing.

The website is aimed at helping the developers of vaccines expand their volunteer pool, he said.

Four people tested positive for Covid-19 in Taiwan on Wednesday, raising the total number of infections to 584, according to the agency.

Three of the new cases came to Taiwan for work from Indonesia on Oct 28. Having stayed in three quarantine stations, they took the Covid-19 tests on Nov 9 and tested positive on Wednesday, though none of them have shown symptoms, according to the agency.

The most recent case, a Belgian national, arrived in Taiwan on Oct 25 and experienced a diminished sense of taste and smell on Oct 31, but he did not report the symptoms because they disappeared the following day. He took the test on Nov 10 at the request of his Taiwan business partner and the result came back positive on Wednesday.

Of the confirmed Covid-19 cases in Taiwan, seven have died, 528 have recovered, and 49 others remain hospitalised, according to the agency.