Taipei, Sept. 21 (CNA) A shipment of 504,000 doses of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine will arrive in Taiwan on Thursday morning and be rolled out on Sept. 30, at the earliest, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said Wednesday.

The protein subunit vaccine, which is "both effective and has a low rate of side effects," will be administered as primary and booster shots to people aged 12 and above, CECC head Victor Wang (王必勝) said at a news conference.

To date, 93.4 percent of people in Taiwan have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 87.3 percent have received two doses, 72.9 percent have received a booster shot, and 10.3 percent have received a second booster, according to CECC data.

Meanwhile, in an interview earlier that day, Wang said the CECC is continuing its preparations to reopen Taiwan's borders without a mandatory quarantine requirement sometime next month.

The CECC will monitor daily case numbers "for the next week or two" to confirm the peak of the current wave has passed, Wang said, adding that upon reopening, COVID-19 rapid tests will be distributed to all travelers on arrival.

"If we're going to open, it will be announced ahead of time. Right now it is absolutely going to happen in October, possibly even in early October, depending on how the COVID situation develops," Wang said.

On Wednesday, Taiwan reported 46,673 domestic COVID-19 cases, down around 6 percent from a week earlier, CECC data shows.