BioNTech had planned to send Taiwan 5 million Covid-19 vaccine doses by July under an original deal which collapsed in January, Taipei’s top diplomat in Berlin said on Tuesday. Taiwan had tried for months to get the vaccine from the German company until BioNTech’s Chinese sales agent said it would sell 10 million doses to Taiwan’s government.

Shieh Jhy-wey, Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to Berlin, said the original English language press release, which was meant to have declared the agreement on Jan 6, mentioned five million doses would have been supplied in batches by July. But two days later, on Jan. 8, Shieh said a different person at BioNTech than they had previously been communicating with began returning messages.

Taiwan Health Minister Chen Shih-Chung said in May, when the government first gave details of what had happened, that they had agreed to change the wording to just “Taiwan”, but it was from that point on the agreement postponed. “However, during the whole process of coordination and discussion, not only me but also members of parliament and German officials strongly felt the high willingness and interest of BioNTech to provide Taiwan with Covid-19 vaccines.”