Around 900,000 doses of BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine are expected to arrive in Taiwan soon, according to the health minister, the first delivery of a highly politicised, much-anticipated order whose tortured progress has transfixed the island.

Taiwan has blamed China, which claims the island as its own territory, for nixing an order from the German firm earlier this year — charges Beijing has angrily denied.

Health Minister Chen Shih-chung, asked whether the first of BioNTech SE's vaccines would arrive on Wednesday, told reporters he was not able to give an exact timetable, "but the time mentioned is very close".

Read more from Reuters here.

A vial labelled with the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine is seen in this illustration picture. — Reuters/File
A vial labelled with the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine is seen in this illustration picture. — Reuters/File

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