The Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) revealed Covid-19 Vaccine is expected to be available within Midyear 2021. Doctor Opat Karnkawinpong from the Department of Disease Control (DDC), Doctor Nakorn Premsri from the National Vaccine Institute (NVI), and other related officials reported the latest news on the Covid-19 vaccine on 24 November 2020. The Deputy Prime Minister and the Public Health Minister proposed a budget to the cabinet for 3,700 Million THB. The cabinet has approved the budget for the Covid-19 vaccine. The budget is used to pre-order vaccines developed by AstraZeneca a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company. The order had already been made on 17 November 2020.
The NVI is responsible for the contract responsible for pre-ordering the vaccine and DDC is responsible for the contract to purchase the vaccine. There will be 26 Million doses of Covid-19 vaccine coming into Thailand. This first lot will be used on target groups of approximately 13 Million persons within 2021. Anutin Charnvirakul the Public Health Minister stated 50% of the population will be injected with the vaccine. Furthermore, there are plans to produce the vaccine in Thailand as the Southeast Asia vaccine manufacturer. The first group of persons to receive the vaccine will be those in their mid-60s. Altogether, Thailand is expected to use approximately 65 million doses.
The rapid access to Covid-19 vaccines will help reduce the morbidity rate in Thailand. It will also help reduce government costs to take care of Covid-19 patients. There are positive hopes that the Covid-19 vaccine will help speed Thailand’s economic recovery and society’s recovery back to normal. The budget for purchasing the vaccine will help reduce economic loss by at least 400,000 Million THB. The ZAD1222 vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca has an average efficacy rate of 70.4%. In trials when the vaccine was first given as a half dose followed by a full dose, the efficacy rate reached 90%. There were no severe Covid-19 cases among the participants who received the vaccine, none of them required hospitalization.
FB Caption: There are positive hopes that the Covid-19 vaccine will help speed up Thailand’s economic recovery.
Source: The Verge, INN News
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