Taipei, March 20 (CNA) Online registration for 2,500 mpox vaccines to be administered in Taiwan's six largest cities on Thursday will open at 3 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

CDC Deputy Director-General Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) said that the publicly-funded pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) vaccines for mpox, previously known as monkeypox, would be administered at one hospital each in Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung.

More information on the times and locations for the vaccines will be announced at a CDC briefing at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Lo said.

While registration was originally scheduled to open on Wednesday, the CDC decided to make it available one day earlier, Lo added.

Lo said that the vaccines would be available to two high-risk groups -- those who have not received an mpox jab as a form of post-exposure treatment, and individuals with a history of sexually transmitted diseases, or who have had sexual contact with multiple partners or sex workers.