Alexa
  • Directory of Taiwan

Taiwan will not mandate COVID vaccinations: CECC

CECC says Taiwanese have right to reject vaccine

  12475
CECC head Chen Shih-chung

CECC head Chen Shih-chung (CNA photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — In response to a recent incident in which an elementary student athlete was rejected from joining a school team for not having been fully vaccinated, Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) head Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) reaffirmed on Wednesday (Nov. 3) that Taiwan will not mandate COVID-19 vaccinations.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) said during a hearing in the country’s legislature on Wednesday (Nov. 3) that as the two-dose vaccination rates in the country have gone up, the ideas of “COVID-19 vaccine passports” and “vaccine passes” have been floating around in private sectors, with some companies even making vaccination a prerequisite for applying for a job, CNA reported.

Su added that she had been told some elementary and high school athletic teams had required students to be fully vaccinated with two vaccine doses before they be permitted to join.

However, there were instances of children who were unvaccinated due to their parents’ concerns over health issues being rejected by school teams due to their vaccination status, Su said. The legislator asked Chen if the central government would approve policies meting out different treatments to fully vaccinated people.

In response, Chen said that Taiwan is indeed planning to make digital certificates for fully vaccinated people, but he added that the certificates are just proof of vaccination to facilitate their entry into the country in the future and not designed to limit freedom in the country in any way.

Currently, vaccination certificates are only required of operators and customers in eight sectors in the entertainment industry, where there is close-range interaction, CNA cited Chen as saying.

The CECC encourages people to get vaccinated but will not mandate vaccinations, Chen said, adding that the center does not want to see people lose rights inherent to them because they chose not to get the jabs, according to the report.