Taiwan is mobilizing its diplomatic corps to secure a speedier delivery of COVID-19 vaccines — a quest that has become more urgent amid a sudden rise in domestic cases on an island that has vaccinated less than 1% of its population.
Taiwan has reported more than 700 new domestic infections during the past week, leading to new curbs in the capital, Taipei, and shocking a population that had become accustomed to life carrying on almost normally with the pandemic well under control.
Taiwan, a major semiconductor manufacturing hub, has only received about 300,000 shots so far for its more than 23 million people, all AstraZeneca PLC vaccines, and those are rapidly running out.