Japan donates more than 1 million Covid-19 jabs to Taiwan

Workers load vaccines against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) to an airplane before the plane, heading towards Taiwan, takes off from an airport in Narita, Japan

More than one million doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine donated by Japan arrived in Taiwan on Friday, as the island struggles to secure jabs and accuses China of interference. The move stirred anger in Beijing, which views democratic and self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory and works to keep the island diplomatically isolated. ‘We have received requests from various countries and areas for the provision of vaccines,’ Japanese foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi told reporters in Tokyo. ‘At this point, we have finished the arrangement for the request from Taiwan. And we will deliver free of charge 1.24 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines that have been produced in Japan.’