The Taiwan Food and Drug Administration said it gave approval after an overall assessment of the vaccine's effectiveness and safety as well as the "urgent domestic public health needs".

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorised updated Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna booster shots that target the dominant BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants of the virus.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by David Goodman)