TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Wednesday (Nov. 17) announced that people who have received the first dose of the AstraZeneca (AZ) COVID vaccine can on Thursday (Nov. 18) mark their preferred mRNA vaccine for their second dose in the country's upcoming 15th round of vaccinations.
CECC Spokesperson Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) that afternoon announced that people aged 18 and over whose first vaccine dose was AZ can on Thursday select whether they want their next inoculation to be a dose of Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT) or Moderna COVID vaccines. Qualified candidates must visit Taiwan's vaccine registration and reservation system on Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to mark their preference.
Chuang said that the function to mark one's preferred vaccine brand will be disabled starting at 5 p.m. on Wednesday to carry out system modification and maintenance. However, it will go back online by 10 a.m. on Thursday, at which time they can begin to select the mRNA jab of their choice.
Those who still wish to receive AZ for their second dose do not need to alter their vaccine preferences on the website. People who have received vaccines other than AZ for their first dose cannot select a different vaccine for their second dose at this time.
Chuang said that 970,000 recipients of the first dose of AZ will be eligible to select BNT or Moderna in the 15th round of vaccinations. People who have already received two vaccine doses are also not currently eligible to apply for another dose by a different vaccine brand in the system.
He said that preliminary results of a study by National Taiwan University Hospital on the mixing of vaccines found that the antibody response after taking a combination of a dose of AZ and a dose of Moderna is equivalent to that of two doses of Moderna. However, he warned that reported side effects are also slightly greater than two doses of AZ.
The study found that an interval of eight weeks is better than four weeks between doses of the two vaccines, said Chuang.