US sends Taiwan 2.5 million vaccine doses, tripling pledge

20/6/2021 19:15

        The U.S. sent 2.5 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan on Sunday, tripling an earlier pledge in a donation with both public health and geopolitical meaning.
        
        The shipment arrived on a China Airlines cargo plane that left Memphis the previous day. Taiwan's health minister, Chen Shih-chung, and Brent Christensen, the top U.S. official in Taiwan, were among those who welcomed the plane on the tarmac at the airport outside of the capital, Taipei.
        
        "The donation reflects our commitment to Taiwan as a trusted friend, and a member of the international family of democracies," the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto U.S. Embassy, wrote on its Facebook page.
        
        Taiwan, which had been relatively unscathed by the virus, has been caught off guard by a surge in new cases since May and is now scrambling to get vaccines. It has ordered 5.05 million doses directly from Moderna but so far received only 390,000, including a second shipment that arrived Friday.