TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Cheng Hsin General Hospital in Taipei has been fined NT$300,000 (US$10,739) for administering COVID-19 jabs to former Taiwanese Vice President Lien Chan (連戰), his wife, and eight volunteers at the hospital — even though none of them were on the government’s priority list for vaccination.
Cheng Hsin said it had vaccinated the 84-year-old former Kuomintang (KMT) leader on June 12, along with his 78-year-old wife Lien Fang Yu (連方瑀), on humanitarian grounds. Lien is being treated at the hospital for a malignant tumor, according to CNA.
In addition, the hospital gave shots to eight volunteers, Taipei Deputy Mayor Huang Shan-shan (黃珊珊) said Thursday (June 24). Healthcare volunteers are on the priority vaccination list; however, the eight individuals in question had no written volunteer service records and were not registered with Taipei’s health department, Huang said.
The hospital was fined NT$300,000 on Tuesday (June 22), according to Huang.
In response to questions about former KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung’s (丁守中) vaccination at Cheng Hsin, Huang said the health department has begun an investigation into the hospital’s vaccine rollout. Ting said in a Facebook post on Wednesday (June 23) that he had received his first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Ting said that he had been notified by Cheng Hsin on May 26 that he was part of the government’s priority list for vaccination.
Some in the KMT, including Ting, have been very vocal in their push to have Chinese COVID vaccines imported into Taiwan. Ting went so far as to say on May 12 that he would be willing to be the first person in Taiwan to receive a Chinese-made coronavirus vaccine.
Taiwan has struggled to acquire enough COVID vaccines for its population of 23.5 million. So far, 1,746,130 doses have been administered, with only 31,862 people fully vaccinated as of June 23.