Faculty members and students receive COVID-19 vaccines at a vaccination site at Anhui Agricultural University in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province, May 13, 2021.Photo:Xinhua

Taiwan singer Hsiao Ching-teng and his team members received their first COVID-19 vaccine doses in a Shanghai hospital on Wednesday, amid acute vaccine shortages on the island partly due to the DPP authority's blockade of mainland vaccines. 

The doses Hsiao and his team received were from Sinopharm.

Photos circulating online show Hsiao pressing his right hand against his left upper arm with an "I got my COVID-19 vaccine!" sticker on it. 

Hsiao's agent, named Summer, said that the team finished the observation in the hospital after vaccination and everything went well, Taiwan media chinatimes.com reported. Their second doses are expected in 21 days.

Summer said that holders of  Mainland travel permit for Taiwan residents can enjoy free COVID-19 vaccines in the Chinese mainland. The team, consisting of 12 members, arrived in the Chinese mainland for work in the middle of March and completed isolation according to regulations. They made appointments for vaccination in Shanghai's Tongren Hospital and received the jabs upon their arrival in the city on Wednesday.

"We've wanted to get vaccinated for a long time," the agent said, quoted by chinatimes.com. "Getting vaccinated has become a trend worldwide. It is to protect ourselves and protect our loved ones, and to avoid causing troubles for society," she said.

More and more Taiwan residents, including political figures, are coming to the Chinese mainland to get vaccinated, amid Taiwan's worsening epidemic and shortages of COVID-19 vaccines.

Yok Mu-ming, 81, former president of the pro-unification New Party of Taiwan, announced through a video on May 28 that he was about to depart from the island to Shanghai to get vaccinated. 

"I would rather go through the quarantine process to get vaccinated in the mainland, and I don't waste time anymore," he told the Global Times in a previous exclusive interview, noting that he came to the mainland with his wife, and they underwent quarantine in different rooms. 

Since the island of Taiwan saw a COVID-19 resurgence in May, the Chinese mainland has expressed willingness and kindness to Taiwan to offer assistance and support, but the offers have been met with hostility and rejection from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Yok said that when the Taiwan residents most need help from the mainland, the DPP authorities are still focused on ideological battles, using the epidemic to serve its political goals and seek secession.

He also urged Taiwan residents who are able to come to the mainland to get vaccinated here, as he knows many of them are very interested in this plan. 

Starting from April 19, Shanghai included local Taiwan compatriots aged 18 to 75 who live in the city into the scope of those eligible for the Chinese-made vaccine jabs. Other mainland cities including Beijing and Shenzhen have also started to administer vaccines to Taiwan compatriots living in the mainland for free.

The Taiwan compatriots the Global Times spoke to said there have been no adverse effects, and that they went through the exact same process as local residents in the mainland.