Crowds of elderly residents waiting outside COVID-19 vaccination centers in Taiwan’s major cities have raised concerns over the potential spread of the virus.

The vaccination program, offering the AstraZeneca vaccine, opened to citizens aged over 80 on June 15 in the capital city Taipei and several special municipalities including Taoyuan, Kaohsiung and New Taipei.

Families of those getting vaccinated complained about the lack of crowd control measures that created chaotic scenes outside the centers, and worried it would trigger another COVID-19 outbreak.

A Taoyuan resident surnamed Cheng was shocked by the large crowd at a Zhongli District community vaccination center when he arrived with his 92-year-old father one hour before his appointment. Cheng said there was no guidance or a ticketing system onsite, making social distancing impossible.

“It’s 97 degrees (33 degrees Celsius) out there, even my dad at 92 needs to queue [for a vaccine], what’s wrong? People aren’t even standing 20 centimeters apart from each other, not to say keeping a one-meter social distance, this is basically a mass gathering,” Cheng said.

Cheng’s father was one of the 52,199 elderly persons over 80 eligible for a jab in Taoyuan; they could receive the jab in 25 centers until Thursday.

According to another resident surnamed Huang, his 98-year-old grandfather had waited for two hours since 8:30 a.m. for the vaccine. He said the crowd size reduced when they left the center.

Similar situations were spotted in various locations in Taipei, where senior residents over 85 were invited for vaccination. Mayor Ko Wen-je admitted the arrangement was “not ideal” after visiting a temporary vaccination center set up at the Xinyi Junior High School.

A local resident said that his 85-year-old family member had to spend an hour under the sun even when he was punctual for the appointment. Meanwhile, Neihu district residents received different messages about their appointments at the Kang Ning Elementary School injection center, with some being informed the exact time while others received an ambiguous message for the “morning,” triggering a big crowd at the center.

Following the first batch of 1.24 million AstraZeneca doses provided to Taiwan on June 4, Japan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi announced yesterday his government would provide one million doses to Vietnam, and it would attempt to obtain more vaccines for both Taiwan and Vietnam through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access initiative.

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