WARSAW, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Poland will donate 400,000 doses
of the AstraZeneca Plc COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan, the
foreign ministry in Warsaw said on Saturday, to help boost
vaccination rates in the country.
While a relatively small domestic coronavirus outbreak is
well under control in Taiwan, only around 5% of its 23.5 million
population are fully vaccinated, though the government has
millions of vaccines on order.
It has already received some six million vaccine doses
gifted by Japan and the United States, enabling it to speed up
an inoculation programme that it said had been hampered
initially by China, though Beijing denies playing any negative
role.
Poland says its vaccine donation is a reciprocal move after
Taiwan donated medical equipment during the first wave of the
pandemic.
"Keeping in mind this important gesture, Warsaw will offer
Taipie 400,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine to speed up the
vaccination process. Increasing the number of vaccinated people
globally is in everyone's interest," the statement said.
Taiwan's foreign ministry has thanked Poland for the
donation.
Slovakia, Czechia and Lithuania recently donated or said
they would donate vaccines to Taiwan, which has repeatedly
rejected offers of doses from China, saying it has doubts about
the safety of Chinese made shots.
(Reporting by Joanna Plucinska and Ben Blanchard; Editing by
Mike Harrison)