Covid-19 vaccinations for June still on schedule
Covid-19 vaccinations in June are still set to proceed as scheduled according to the Department of Disease Control. They have ensured that production and distribution is on track, especially with AstraZeneca producing 6 million jabs domestically now. Local production in Thailand is ramping up, with 61 million AstraZeneca vaccines planned to be manufactured domestically by Siam Bioscience by the end of the year. PM Prayut Chan-o-cha, the Health Ministry, and the Division of Disease Control Emergency Situation have all spoke to reassure the public that distribution will not be delayed and production is on track.
586,000 vaccines, the combined total of AstraZeneca and the Chinese SinoVac jab, have been administered so far and the number is expected to surge as mass Covid-19 vaccinations begin across Thailand. The first batches were distributed across all 77 provinces in the nation with over 510,000 people receiving their first shot already. 75,576 people are fully vaccinated, having received their first and second shot already.
Officials are looking forward to AstraZeneca delivering ts batch of jabs in June when large-scale Covid-19 vaccinations will really get underway. Once delivery begins, AstraZeneca is contracted to send 10 million vaccines per month to Thailand for 5 months, from July to November, with December completing their contract on delivery of the final 5 million shots of the 61 million contracted.
Of the 586,000 vaccines administered already, they were mostly split between medical personnel and residents of high-risk areas, with both demographics receiving just over 40% of the injections each. The remaining 20% was split between officials, who received about 10% of the jabs, those over 60 years old, who accounted for 5%, and people with non-communicable diseases, making up just over 4% of the Covid-19 vaccinations.
In Bangkok, a new Covid-19 testing station has been set up and is prepared to test about 3,000 people per day. The station is for Social Security Fund members who believe they are at risk of being infected with Covid-19, and registration can be done online here. The testing location can be found at the Bangkok Youth Centre.
SOURCE: Bangkok Post
