Taiwan to adopt information-centric mass vaccination strategy: Health Minister Chen Shih-chung

When asked about international media coverage of Israel’s “militarized” approach to its world-beating mass vaccination campaign, Central Epidemic Command Center Commander Chen Shih-chung said that while he is not entirely knowledgeable of the specific measures employed by the country, Taiwan aims to adopt an information-centric mass vaccination strategy.

During a press release on Feb. 16, Minister Chen said that Israel appears to have tasked two of the country’s largest public health insurance companies that insure Israelis with tracking, collating, and managing data stemming from its vaccination campaign, leading to the publication of numerous reports. As for Taiwan, the government is aiming to adopt an information-centric vaccination strategy to improve efficiency and reduce the amount of waiting time for the public. Data analytics will also be employed to determine the optimal distribution of vaccines.

For example, Taiwan’s vaccination campaign could leverage the National Health Insurance card to verify personal information and the corresponding vaccine types appropriate for each person based on age, Minister Chen said. The government is also planning to consolidate different data bases into a centralized data base, which will also be linked to the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control’s existing vaccination data base to help authorities make the informed decisions and track the durations between the administering of the first and second doses to improve efficiency.

[2021-2-16/CNA]