Photo:VCG

Chang Ya-chung,Sun Yat-sen School President in Taiwan island, said on Saturday that the school has accepted the first batch of vaccine donations of 5 million doses of BNT COVID-19 vaccine from Shanghai's Fosun Pharma and 5 million vaccines from mainland Chinese developer Sinopharm, coming from a Beijing-based culture company. 

Chang told the Global Times on Saturday that he and his school will handle related matters on behalf of the company. 

Chang said they respect the free choice of Taiwan residents in choosing which vaccine they wish to be inoculated with. The Sinopharm vaccine has been approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) for emergency use. 

After the first batch of donations, the company will donate second batch if the island needs more. 

Given the rapid spread of COVID-19 in Taiwan, which will be difficult to handle, only vaccines can help the island overcome current difficulties, Chang said, noting that in a bid to overcome the difficulty of obtaining vaccines, he contacted his friends in the Chinese mainland attempting to find out whether there is a feasible way to acquire vaccines to tackle the emergency.

The offer of 10 million free doses of COVID-19 vaccines was coordinated by Zeng Nian, director of a cross-Taiwan Straits cultural center in Beijing and grandnephew of Chiang Ching-kuo. 

Chang said they are willing to entrust this batch of vaccines to Taiwan health authorities, and are also willing to negotiate with the local authorities and cooperate to arrange the vaccine roll-out and subsequent inoculations. 

With the death toll rising, Chang said he hopes the DPP authorities will base their judgements on humanitarianism and not interfere with the handling of this batch of vaccines out of political considerations. Chang said he hopes the DPP authorities can quickly approve the introduction of this batch of vaccine to save people's lives.

Global Times