At a time when Thailand is faced with a tough battle against COVID-19 and new variants, it’s more important than ever for health authorities to relay important messages to the Thai and non-Thai population –
A government spokesman says Thailand will receive 61 million vaccine doses from AstraZeneca by the end of this year. Anucha Burapachaisri has also confirmed the company is working on second-generation vaccines to better handle future mutations of the virus.
“Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha had an online meeting with AstraZeneca’s chief executive officer Pascal Claude Roland Soriot , during which the company promised to deliver 61 million doses of the vaccine by December-end. This will bring the total number of vaccines that the government has procured so far to 120 million doses, covering about 60 million of the population.”
“This is good news, it will help create herd immunity faster. This will take pressure off the health care system, help people return to their normal lives and speed up economic recovery,” government spokesperson Anucha Burapachaisri said in a statement.
Last month, health officials said that AstraZeneca had asked to delay deliveries of its order of 61 million doses to May 2022
“AstraZeneca said it is developing a new formula of the vaccine with increased efficacy against new variants. The government is planning to buy another 60 million doses of the new formula in 2022. We estimate that a contract will be drafted and signed by September-end this year.”
Thailand has reported 1,066,786 coronavirus infections and 9,562 deaths since the pandemic began. Over 97% of those cases and deaths have been detected since April this year.
In addition to buying more AstraZeneca vaccines, Thailand also has plans to 50 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in 2022, according to the health ministry.
Thailand’s vaccine drive has so far depended on Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines and faced delays since it began last month.