BANGKOK (NNT) – Thailand’s Minister of Public Health says that more COVID-19 vaccine doses from the latest shipment will be sent to tourism areas, such as Phuket and Koh Samui, while confirming there will be no changes to the announced measures for Songkran holidays, as the situation is under control.

The Minister of Public Health Anutin Charnvirakul has revealed that more vaccines, from the recently arrived batch of 800,000 doses of Sinovac’s vaccine from China, will be made available to tourism provinces, with 100,000 doses reserved for Phuket, 50,000 doses for Koh Samui, as well as more doses for second wave hotspot Samut Sakhon.

He said epidemiological factors are the most important when creating the vaccine distribution plan. However, the vaccine will also need to be given to villagers in tourism areas, in addition to healthcare workers, in order to stimulate economic activity.

The private sector in Phuket has recently requested 900,000 doses of vaccine to be made available to the province, in order to reopen the Andaman islands to international visitors.

The Minister of Public Health said this is highly feasible, as Thailand will be receiving 5 million doses of locally produced AstraZeneca vaccine in June, with 10 million doses per month expected afterwards.

Prior to June, Thailand will be receiving a shipment of another 1 million Sinovac doses from China.

Mr. Anutin said, however, that it is not yet clear if the country can reopen for tourists on 1 July, as the vaccination process itself takes time, and the overall COVID-19 situation must improve, with fewer patients, no severe cases and low infection rates.

Source link

About the author

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Sign Up for Our Newsletter

Get notified of our weekly selection of news

You May Also Like

Thailand’s Economy Remains Resilient says World Bank

Tourism arrivals reached 45 percent of the pre-pandemic level in September, surpassing those in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Finance Ministry Maintains 2023 GDP Growth Outlook at 3.8%

The Ministry of Finance is maintaining its economic growth outlook for 2023 at 3.8%, helped by a rebound in tourism and domestic demand, but exports are still expected to slow down this year.

Growth in developing East Asia to accelerate to 5.1% says World Bank

Growth in developing East Asia and the Pacific is forecast to accelerate in 2023 as China’s economy reopens, while the pace of growth in most of the economies in the rest of the region is anticipated to ease after a strong rebound last year, a World Bank report said on Thursday.