Thailand starts its mass vaccination programme

Health authorities in Thailand on Monday began their much-anticipated mass rollout of locally produced AstraZeneca vaccine, but it appeared that supplies were falling short of demand from those with scheduled appointments.

Hospitals in various parts of the country have been posting notices for several days that some scheduled appointments would be delayed, adding to existing public skepticism about how many doses the new factory of Siam Bioscience,  AstraZeneca's local partner, would be able to produce each month.

The government has said it will produce 6 million doses in June, then 10 million doses each month from July to November, and 5 million doses in December.

Speaking to reporters Monday as he toured a vaccination centre at an indoor stadium in Bangkok, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said the Health Ministry confirmed that vaccinations could begin in every province, with vaccines being allocated in accordance to the infection rates.

The vaccination station visited by Prayuth can provide 1,500 jabs a day, said Mongkon Wanitphakdeedecha, director of Vichaivej International Hospital, who was supervising the operation.

He said they have three days' supply on hand, but he did not know if other sites had enough for more than one day.

Prayuth's government had already come under fierce criticism for failure to secure timely and sufficient vaccine supplies.

Thailand last year had been considered a success story in containing the spread of the virus and limiting the number of related deaths. It had originally planned to obtain supplies to cover just 20% of the country's 70 million people, with most available only in the second half of this year.

However, a third wave of the coronavirus beginning in April has been devastating and underlined the need for a more ambitious vaccination campaign.

The third wave has accounted for 84% of the total 179,886 confirmed cases in Thailand since January last year, and 92.5% of the total of 1,269 confirmed and reported deaths.

The government has now targeted vaccinating 70% of the population this year, a figure believed to confer herd immunity against the disease.

As of Saturday, Thailand had given 4.22 million vaccinations, with about 4% of the country's 70 million people receiving at least one jab.

The government has been scrambling to obtain additional supplies to supplement the Chinese-made Sinovac it has been using so far and the AstraZenca now coming onstream.

China has supplied  6.5 million doses of Sinovac to Thailand, including 500,000 doses that arrived Saturday.

Siam Bioscience was reported to have delivered its first 1.8 million doses to AstraZeneca's local office last Wednesday, which were then turned over to the Health Ministry on Friday.