On June 7th, Thailand began its mass rollout of vaccinations, after months of criticism following several delays. In the first three days of this effort, over one million doses had already been administered. However, since this initial surge, a lack of supplies has slowed the country’s vaccination rates significantly. The Thai government plans to administer 100 million vaccine doses by the end of the year, but many are doubtful that they will reach this goal, as it is estimated that only 16 million doses have been administered thus far.
Meanwhile, Thailand is experiencing one of the worst outbreaks of the virus seen this year. Following a rise in cases over recent weeks, the government has extended and expanded COVID-19 restrictions to include tighter ‘stay-at-home’ measures, such as a curfew from 9pm to 4am for 13 of the country’s 76 provinces. On July 16th, authorities in Thailand imposed a national ban on public gatherings; consequences include a maximum penalty of a two year jail term, a fine of up to 40,000 Thai baht (1220 US dollars), or both.
There was some controversy after the health authorities announced that the Thailand vaccination rollout would solely rely on vaccines produced from one manufacturer, Siam Bioscience, a company owned by Thailand’s own monarch, King Maha Vajiralongkorn. The biotechnology firm had no prior experience with manufacturing vaccines, so it was predicted that they would fall short of their rollout plan’s target.
Adding to this, Siam Bioscience was originally contracted to provide vaccinations for neighbouring countries. However, this has apparently changed; authorities in the Philippines, Taiwan, and Malaysia have reported that their expected shipments of the AstraZeneca vaccine produced by Siam Bioscience have either been delayed or reduced. This came as the Thailand health authorities announced that they wanted to limit vaccine exports, after data showed that they do not have enough locally produced vaccines for their population of almost 7 million.
As a result, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has apologised for the delayed vaccine rollout; the government has since confirmed that there are plans to acquire 25 million additional vaccines from Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer-BioNTech, with a further 8 million from Chinese producer Sinovac. With the vaccines from these foreign manufacturers, the country hopes that these additional supplies will allow their rollout to get back on schedule.
The government is keen to get the majority of the population vaccinated in order to slow down cases and death rates in the country. This would allow them to revive their tourism sector, a large contributor to Thailand’s economy. In a Facebook post, Prayut Chan-o-cha commented on how important vaccinations are in regards to the future of the country: “Vaccines will be the key to reopening the country to tourism, to rehabilitating the economy and returning to normal life … Vaccines will be the force to drive the country forward with security and sustainability.”
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Published August 2, 2021
Written by Rebecca Symns-Rowley ~ Edited by Alex Truong ~ Graphics created by Tanya Gu
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