1 million Sinopharm doses arrived Sunday

1 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine arrived in Bangkok on Sunday. This coming from a Facebook post by the CRA Secretary General Dr Nithi Mahanonda.

The vaccines will travel to the Medical Sciences Department to be tested on it efficacy and safety. This should take 2 days to finish.

“Then, the vaccine will be distributed to hospitals picked by the CRA. The hospitals will administer the vaccines next Friday.”

Sinopharm, AstraZeneca, and Sinovac are “alternative” vaccines. They have both been approved by the World Health Organization for emergency use. Both Sinopharm and Sinovac are produced in China.

Currently, over 65 million doses of Sinopharm have been administered throughout 57 countries. Its efficacy is said to be 79% effective in protecting against Covid-19 symptoms. Further, it is also said to be 79% effective against hospitalisation. The 2 doses must be administered 21 days apart.

The hospitals set to provide Sinopharm, have been checked by the CRA for their “readiness”. Part of the readiness is making sure their IT systems can handle registration without “disruption”, possibly alluding to the 2 data leaks from earlier this week.

The Sinopharm vaccine will be distributed across 17,000 organisations to about 5 million employees.

The Sinopharm is not a free inoculation as it was bought through CRA funding. The current price (for each jab) is 888 baht. This price includes the 30,000 baht insurance that covers any negative side effects that may appear after the vaccine is administered.

On Friday, 1 million AstraZeneca doses arrived in Thailand.

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SOURCE: Thai PBS