China disrupted Taiwan's signing of a contract with German BioNTech on the supply of vaccines against COVID-19, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said on Wednesday
BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th May, 2021) China disrupted Taiwan's signing of a contract with German BioNTech on the supply of vaccines against COVID-19, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said on Wednesday.
"We were actively holding negotiations on the issue of securing the best vaccines in the world, including the British AstraZeneca vaccine, the American Moderna and the German BioNTech [vaccines]. We successfully purchased vaccines from Great Britain and the US," Tsai said in Facebook.
According to her, Taiwan was close to making a deal with BioNTech, but the deal was suspended due to China's intervention.
Tsai also said that Taiwan seeks to purchase the vaccine directly from its producer or discuss the supplies through the WHO-led COVAX mechanism, despite Hong Kong receiving the BioNTech vaccine through China's Fosun Pharma company.
The leader also said that Taipei already secured around 30 million vaccine doses to be supplied within several months, of those, about 10 million are expected by late August.
Taiwan has been witnessing a spike in COVID-19 cases for the last two weeks, having registered so far over 5,400 people infected with the virus and 35 coronavirus-related deaths.
