Taipei, Sept. 6 (CNA) The first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines with a tailor-made label in traditional Chinese is expected to arrive in Taiwan around the third week of September, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. founder Terry Gou said Monday.
After that shipment arrives around Sept. 21, another 8-9 million doses of the brand will be delivered in weekly batches of 700,000-800,000 over next few months from Germany, where BioNTech is based, Gou said on a Facebook post.
He posted the information at the end of his 14-day quarantine, after his return Aug. 22 from Europe, where he received a BNT jab in the Czech Republic before going onward to other countries.
Gou said the main purpose of his trip to Europe was to ensure that BNT would supply the vaccines to Taiwan on schedule.
Hon Hai's Yonglin Charity and Education Foundation, along with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, in July ordered a total of 15 million doses of BNT vaccines from the German manufacturer.
On Sept. 2, the first batch in that order was delivered, but the 933,660 doses were labeled in simplified Chinese and bore the name Comirnaty, the new name under which the vaccine is being marketed since it obtained approval from the American Food and Drug Administration on Aug. 23.
The BNT vaccines received in that batch have been reserved mainly for students 12-17, and rollout is scheduled to begin in mid-September, according to the Taiwan government.
