Health officials say 50 percent of Thais will be vaccinated this year

The head of the Department of Disease Control, part of the Ministry of Public Health, says plans to vaccinate 30 million Thais by the end of 2021 are underway. Opas Karnkawinpong says the national vaccine rollout will involve thousands of public and community hospitals across the country, with vaccines distributed from central storage sites at the Department of Disease Control and the Government Pharmaceutical Organization.

“We can start administering at least 5 million doses per month if everything goes to plan and then, up to 10 million doses per month, to complete 61 million doses in 2021. In our history, this is the largest vaccination program and we need to get all our staff ready to do the job”

The program will be carried out in three phases, according to the Bangkok Post report, with 2 million doses expected to be given by the end of March. Phases 2 and 3 will follow in June when 61 million doses of the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine will be rolled out. Meanwhile, Chinese regulators have given the go-ahead to export the Sinovac Biotech vaccine, meaning the Food and Drug Administration of Thailand is now just waiting for approval.

To date, only 1 vaccine, which is the AstraZeneca offering, has also been approved by the FDA. Following a row of supplies to the EU Member States between the manufacturer and the EU, the bloc placed restrictions on the export of the vaccine beyond the EU. As a result, as originally planned, AstraZeneca confirmed that Thailand's supply will come from a manufacturing plant in Asia, and not from Italy. At some point this month, Thailand is expecting the first 200,000 doses, with healthcare workers and 'high-risk' residents expected to be first in line for inoculation in the red zone of Samut Sakhon.

Then, in March, there will be 600,000 doses in maximum control provinces for "high-risk" populations, including those bordering Myanmar and parts of southern Thailand. The Kingdom is expected to receive 1 million doses in April, with 600,000 provided as a second dose and 400,000 reserved for urgent cases.