By The Financial District
Jun 21, 20211 min
About 2.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses donated by the United States arrived on Sunday, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.
Included in the shipment were 2.5 million doses of Moderna vaccine donated by the US government, 750,000 doses announced on June 6, and an additional 1.75 million doses, Facebook, AIT, which acts as the de facto US embassy, announced.
On June 6, when three US senators visited Taipei, the announcement of donating 750,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to Taiwan was made.
"The donation reflects our commitment to Taiwan as a trusted friend, and a member of the international family of democracies," AIT said.
The arrival of 2.5 million US-made doses on Sunday will significantly ease the pressure on Taiwan's large-scale vaccination program amid its worst COVID-19 outbreak.
As of Saturday, Taiwan, with 23.6 million people, had only secured about 2.35 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine. Since the pandemic began, Taiwan has confirmed a total of 13,896 infections. On Saturday, the death toll due reached 538