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Taiwan clears AstraZeneca vaccine
TAIPEI • Taiwan has completed checks on its first batch of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines and the first shots may start being administered from 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, but they have yet to be administered.
Taiwan's government has played down concerns about the late start to the vaccination programme, pointing out its low case rate. Taiwan has seen 990 cases, with 10 deaths since the outbreak started.
REUTERS
Thai business group orders Sinovac jab
BANGKOK • Thailand will procure an additional 100,000 doses of China's Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine to be used and paid for by businesses, an industry group said yesterday, in the first phase of a private sector vaccination scheme.
Other South-east Asian countries including the Philippines and Indonesia have also launched private schemes, which proponents say will help kick-start key industries and cut the state burden.
"The Government Pharmaceutical Organisation has confirmed our order," Federation of Thai Industries chairman Supant Mongkolsuthree told reporters, adding that the vaccine costing 1,000 baht (S$44) per dose should be administered in June.
REUTERS
Filipino nurse dies of Covid-19 after jab
MANILA • A Filipino nurse, 47, has died from Covid-19, only days after receiving a dose of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine.
Health officials yesterday told reporters she did not die because of adverse reactions to the vaccine.
"The patient died of Covid infections," said Dr Rommel Lobo, who heads the government's National Adverse Effects Following Immunisation Committee.
The health worker tested positive for Covid-19 on Feb 22, but a second test came back negative just a day later.
With the Feb 23 negative result, she received one shot of the vaccine on March 4. But on March 8, she again tested positive and was taken to a hospital on March 10, where she died on March 13.
The nurse was infected with Covid-19 last year, and had asthma, hypertension and diabetes.
Raul Dancel