12 million Sinovac doses to arrive this month or next

The Cabinet Committee has approved a 4.25 billion baht budget to buy another 12 million Sinovac doses. The vaccine will be used for the immunity boost and the cross-formula method. The approval came yesterday afternoon.

The vaccine allocation will prioritise 4 target groups:

1. Patients with 7 underlying diseases
2. Those over 60 years old
3. Medical officials, frontliners, public officials who work in high-risk environments
4. general public

The Sinovac doses should arrive in Thailand either this month or next. Some of the doses will be used for the cross-formula vaccine injection between Sinovac and AstraZeneca, says government spokesperson Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana.

“The cross-formula vaccination between Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines can shorten the duration of injections and boost immunity according to research. It will also help reduce morbidity and mortality rates as well as the government costs for treating Covid-19 patients while speeding the recovery of domestic economy and society in general”, says Thanakorn.

Ahead of this shipment of 12 million doses, 3 million Sinovac doses arrived last month in mid-August. Earlier this week, the Chinese embassy in Bangkok condemned criticisms of the Sinovac vaccine and claimed it besmirched the goodwill China has for Thailand.

SOURCE: The Pattaya News