[ad_1]
Thailand launched locally produced AstraZeneca injections because it started the highly anticipated mass vaccination campaign.
The Thai health authorities have launched a long-awaited mass vaccination campaign with the aim of vaccinating 6 million doses of locally manufactured Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and imported Xenoxin COVID-19 vaccine this month.
As the event kicked off on Monday, Thailand was battling the third and most severe coronavirus pandemic.
“The government will ensure that everyone is vaccinated,” Prime Minister Prayut Chan Ocha said in a TV commentary after visiting a vaccination center in Bangkok.
He said that vaccination will begin in each province on Monday, and the vaccine will be distributed according to the infection rate in each region.
The government plans to vaccinate 70% of Thailand’s more than 66 million people by the end of the year. So far, 2.8 million people considered the most vulnerable, including frontline health and transportation workers, have received the first dose of the vaccine.
But the government was criticized by opposition politicians who accused the government of being complacent and overly dependent on locally manufactured Oxford-AstraZeneca drugs.
Last year, when Thailand was hit hard in other countries, it was already free from the worst impact of the pandemic, but it is now struggling to deal with the deadliest epidemic. So far, the third wave of infections has accounted for more than 80% of the total infections. Officials reported 2,419 new COVID-19 cases and 33 deaths on Monday, bringing the total to 179,886 and 1,269 deaths.
Mongkon Wanitphakdeedecha, director of Vichaivej International Hospital, who oversees the operation, said that the stadium vaccination center visited by Prayuth can provide 1,500 injections a day. He said they have a three-day supply on hand, but he doesn’t know if other sites have more than one day supply.
After the Philippines stated that its orders had been reduced and postponed, the government has been scrambling to purchase more vaccines because people are concerned about the Royal-owned Siam Bioscience production capacity, which is a Thai company that produces Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines locally. .
A source from the Thai Ministry of Health told Reuters that the Thai government received 1.8 million doses of locally produced Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on Friday and purchased another 200,000 doses from South Korea.
The Ministry of Health of Thailand said in a statement that Thailand will receive an additional 3.24 million doses of vaccine from AstraZeneca after mid-June, but did not specify how many vaccines will be produced locally.
At the same time, China has supplied 6.5 million doses of Coxing to Thailand, including 500,000 doses that arrived on Saturday.
Thailand also expects to sign a contract for 20 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this week.
[ad_2]
Source link
