3.7 million Moderna vaccines arriving in January, 1.3 million today

Jabby New Year’s! The start of 2022 will see a total of 3.7 million Moderna vaccines arriving in Thailand to continue to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, with the first 1.3 million doses arriving today. Zuellig Pharma Therapeutics, the distributers of the Moderna vaccine will be delivering the 3.7 million vaccines in 3 shipments to the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation and private hospitals around the country throughout the month of January.

The vaccines are a welcomed arrival as new studies show that a booster shot of Moderna offers far more protection against the more transmissible Omicron variant than only 2 doses of any brand of vaccine. Data shows that even a 50-microgramme booster of the mRNA vaccine increases neutralizing antibody levels by up to 37 times, while a full 100-microgramme dose can boost those levels by up to 83 times.

The first delivery has been received and is being prepared for distribution around the country, but if you are holding vaccine queue ticket number 1,300,001 – don’t fear! – the next load of Moderna vaccines are scheduled to arrive in just 2 more days, with a delivery of 870,000 vaccines planned for January 8. The final round of vaccines is slated for delivery 9 days after that on January 17.

The vaccine reinforcements couldn’t have come at a better time as Covid-19 infections surged from well under 3,000 per day to 3,899 in yesterday’s daily report to 5,775 in today’s report from the Ministry of Public Health. The spike panicked the government into raising the Covid-19 threat level in Thailand up to 4 out of 5, while Minister of Public Health Anutin Charnvirakul attributed the surge to a lack of vigilance as people travelled and partied over the New Year’s holiday weekend.

Dr Yong Poovorawan, the chief of the Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology at the Faculty of Medicine of Chulalongkorn University, warned that the public should expect a surge in Covid-19 as the Omicron variant spreads across Thailand, and had specifically called for people to get their booster shots for protection, something this month’s deliveries of 3.7 million Moderna vaccines will certainly help.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post