The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced that the Influenza Advisory Committee under the Department of Health (DOH) held the 14th meeting on December 18, 2009.The participating experts discussed about the possible occurrence of the third wave of pandemic influenza A (H1N1) infection in Taiwan in the near future.All the experts agreed that such possibility cannot be eliminated because the virus will continue to persist for a period of time even though the number of cases is currently on the decline.In addition, the number of people with immunity to H1N1 is approximately less than 30% of the entire population in Taiwan, including those infected with H1N1 and those vaccinated against H1N1. Hence, CECC urged people without immunity to the virus to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

The experts who attended the meeting include Professor Ming-Liang Lee, Professor Wei-Chuan Hsieh, Professor Pei-Jer Chen, Professor Ping-Ing Lee, Dr. Yi-Chun Chen of National Taiwan University Hospital, Professor Jen-Ren Wang of National Cheng Kung University, and Dr. Ching-Chuan Liu of National Cheng Kung University Hospital.

As of 10am on December 21, 2009, a total of 4,744,930 people in Taiwan were vaccinated against H1N1, constituting more than 20% of the entire population in Taiwan. 35.1% of the people in Lianjiang City have been vaccinated. About 14 other cities and counties met the goal of vaccinating 20% of the local population, including Jiayi City, Taichung City, Taoyuan County, Hualien County, Taichung County, Hualien County, Yilan County, Changhua County, Taitung County, Miaoli County, Nantou County, Hsinchu County, Penghu County, Tainan County and Tainan City.