Coronavirus (Covid-19)

500,000 Sinovac doses arrive in Thailand

Published

2 weeks ago

Sunday, April 25, 2021

Neill Fronde

PHOTO: 500,000 more Sinovac vaccines arrive in Thailand this weekend.

Half a million more Sinovac vaccines have arrived in Thailand, while tomorrow another 2 million Favipiravir antiviral pills arrive. Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has been pushing to increase Thailand’s supply of both vaccines and medicine to treat patients already infected with Covid-19.

This brings Thailand up to 2.5 million Sinovac jabs in the race to vaccinate the population amid a skyrocketing outbreak. An additional 1 million vaccines are expected from Sinovac Biotech in the middle of May.

All 77 provinces have begun the vaccination process with 834,000 people receiving their first injection already and 130,000 people fully vaccinated with their first and second jabs completed. Thailand will soon reach the million vaccinated mark. The new batch won’t be immediately administered to people as it first needs to pass inspection by the Department of Medical Sciences. Once cleared for safety, the Department of Disease Control will distribute the jabs across the country.

The new jabs are earmarked for distribution to people in the 18 to 29 year old age demographic in the first target groups in Thailand’s vaccination rollout plans. PM Prayut Chan-o-cha declared last week that Thailand will negotiate with 2 or 3 other vaccine producers to secure 35 million more doses, as the government intends to have 100 million jabs in total in order to vaccinate 50 million people by the end of 2021.

While the country currently has the Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has also been approved for use in Thailand. Siam Bioscience has also been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to produce the AstraZeneca vaccine domestically. Pfizer can’t be approved until 1 month after it is registered for use with the Food and Drug Administration.

After the Thai government announced they would allow the private sector to import and distribute Covid-19 vaccines, private companies are expected to purchase 10 million to 15 million jabs for their employees. The Board of Trade of Thailand and the Chamber of Commerce will most likely lead the push to obtain and administer vaccines privately.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post

Want more from the Thaiger family?

📱 Download our app on Android or iOS for instant updates on your mobile
📧 Subscribe to our daily email newsletter
👍 Like/Follow us on Facebook
🔔 Subscribe to or Join our YouTube channel for daily video updates

News Categories: Coronavirus (Covid-19) Thailand

8 Comments

Mmmkay

Sunday, April 25, 2021 at 1:46 pm

“Pfizer can’t be approved until 1 month after it is registered for use with the Food and Drug Administration.”

They really need to figure out this pile of red tape.

Reply
gosport

Sunday, April 25, 2021 at 1:52 pm

Speeding up the roll out with available vaccines.

Reply
Alavan

Sunday, April 25, 2021 at 4:24 pm

“The new jabs are earmarked for distribution to people in the 18 to 29 year old age demographic in the first target groups in Thailand’s vaccination rollout plans. “Other countries start with the elderly, the most vulnerable, who have more chance of being hospitalised.
This way, they try to dimminue the heavy toll on hospitals.
Why 18 to 29 olds first? So that they can continnue partying?

Reply
TS

Sunday, April 25, 2021 at 7:04 pm

50,000 sinovac due. that should be end of this 3rd wave. thanks general p.m.

Reply
EdwardV

Sunday, April 25, 2021 at 7:55 pm

According to Chile, Sinovac has a 16% efficacy from the first jab. That said it’s still better than nothing.

Reply
Singharacha

Sunday, April 25, 2021 at 11:23 pm

Choice of Chinese vaccine is careful and reasonable.

Italy will produce the Russian Sputnik V vaccine. I suggest that Thailand produces Sputnik V vaccine also.

Reply
Leo Z

Monday, April 26, 2021 at 5:15 am

It seems everything they announce and do is a few months late, or too little too late. First, “500,000 Sinovac”? That should have been “5,000,000 Sinovac”, especially given the government’s ties AND the desire of China to “offload” vaccines. Next, they “will negotiate with 2 or 3 other vaccine producers to secure 35 million more doses”?! That should have happened MONTHS ago, they are still negotiating? This borders on atrocious performance.

Reply
L-Dogg

Monday, April 26, 2021 at 5:55 am

Have to pass inspection. Does that mean they need to siphon off their private stash first. Like they are going to test every vile. They need to start vaccinating people and stop playing games.

Reply

Up Next

Clubhouse app a new platform for political debate

Don't Miss

50 Buddhist nuns positive for Covid at Chiang Mai dharma practice centre

Neill Fronde

Neill is a journalist from the United States with 10 years broadcasting experience and national news and magazine publications. He graduated with a degree in journalism and communications from the University of California and has been living in Thailand since 2014.

Coronavirus (Covid-19)

Friday Covid UPDATE: 27 more deaths, 2,044 new infections

Published

4 mins ago

Friday, May 7, 2021

Thaiger

The Friday report, compiling the regional totals from Thursday, indicates that has been 27 new Covid-related deaths and 2,044 new Covid-19 infections in the past 24 hours. The numbers continue a statistically consistent rise in the number of Covid infections over the past 2 weeks.

The CCSA yesterday declared that is is focusing on containing major Covid clusters in 3 key Bangkok communities – the Klong Toey ‘slums’, Bon Kai in Pathumwan and Ban Khing in the Bang Kae district, on the west side of the Chao Phraya.

Meanwhile, talking about Phuket’s plans to open in July, the Tourism and Sports Minister, Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, said yesterday that the number of new cases on the island must reach zero before the government can contemplate the ‘Sandbox’ plan for no-quarantine travel.

He also disclosed that the government are planning to set a levy of 300 baht to be collected from foreign tourists starting from January 2020 “to set up a tourism fund for emergency use”. Speaking to Bangkok Post…

“Once the spread is under control, the government will resume travel bubble discussions with Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Laos and Malaysia.”

Want more from the Thaiger family?

Coronavirus (Covid-19)

Thailand plans to include 3 million foreigners in mass vaccination programme

Published

14 hours ago

Thursday, May 6, 2021

Ann Carter

Photo via Mufid Majnun on Unsplash

The Thai government says it is planning on including 3 million foreigners in its mass Covid-19 vaccination programme in an effort to protect the entire population. Opas Kankawinpong, the head of the disease control department, has confirmed the news, saying that anyone can get the vaccine if they want it.

“Anybody living in Thailand, whether they be Thai or foreign, if they want they vaccine, they can get it. No one is safe until everyone is safe.”

But expatriates have been voicing their concerns in the past few weeks, about, what they say, is a lack of public information, confusion over private vaccines, and problems registering. The mass immunisation programme hasn’t started yet, but the government is sticking to its previous announcement that major tourism areas will open in July to vaccinated travellers. The plan was contingent upon 70% of local residents being vaccinated in order to achieve a herd immunity to the virus. But 50 million Thais and 3 million foreign residents would need to be inoculated over the next few months.

Anxiety over the massive amount of people who have yet to receive even their first dose is growing, as the country deals with its largest outbreak of Covid since the pandemic began. Reports of only frontline workers as having received the vaccines from the stock of 2.5 Sinovac vaccines, have made critics say the government’s slow vaccine rollout is not helping the latest wave.

Meanwhile, another 1 million Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine doses from China have arrived in Thailand while another batch of 500,000 doses will arrive next week. The Government Pharmaceutical Organisation formally accepted the delivery at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport this morning.

More than 2/3 of deaths in Thailand from the virus have been recorded just in the past month alone. But new, daily infections have been hovering around the 2,000 mark since the middle of April. The Public Health Ministry says it is working on other ways to communicate with foreigners about getting the jabs. Mobile applications or being contacted directly by hospitals are a couple of ideas on the table.

Today, Thailand reported 1,911 new Covid-19 infections and 18 deaths.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post

Want more from the Thaiger family?

Coronavirus (Covid-19)

Order of 1 million Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine doses arrive in Thailand

Published

15 hours ago

Thursday, May 6, 2021

Tanutam Thawan

Photo via Facebook/องค์การเภสัชกรรม

Another 1 million Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine doses from China have arrived in Thailand while another batch of 500,000 doses will arrive next week. The Government Pharmaceutical Organisation formally accepted the delivery at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport this morning.

Altogether, 3.5 million doses of the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine, known as Coronavac, have arrived in Thailand to be used to vaccinate people ages 18 to 60. People need to receive 2 doses for the vaccine to be effective.

The Thai Cabinet received approved a budget of 321.6 million baht to purchase 500,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine. The next order will arrive on May 14.

The vaccine doses were delivered in temperature-controlled containers which kept the vaccines at a temperature of around 2 to 8 degrees Celsius.

SOURCE: Nation Thailand