Prime Minister Prayuth Chan o-cha – File photo
BANGKOK (July 14): Prime Minister Prayuth Chan o-cha directed medical experts to provide more information on different vaccine combinations being considered by the country’s Health Ministry to stem the Covid-19 pandemic.
Government Spokesperson Anucha Burapachaisri said it is in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan’s concern over mixing vaccine.
“The prime minister is not against mixing different Covid-19 vaccine for inoculation, but would like to call on all sectors to take into consideration advices of the National Communicable Disease Committee,” he said in a statement here today.
On Monday, Thailand announced it will mix-and-match China’s Sinovac with AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine to boost protection against the virus, especially the highly contagious Delta variant which was first detected in India.
However, WHO chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan warned that there is uncertainty over the safety and efficacy of using different vaccine combinations as “it’s a little bit of a dangerous trend here”.
She also suggested that public health agencies provide advice based on available data, and that immunogenicity and safety both need to be evaluated.
Today, Bangkok Post reported that hospitals and health offices have been left confused over the mixing of doses of Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines after the prime minister questioned the Health Ministry’s proposal in curbing the spread of Covid-19.
Due to the uncertainty, the provincial health office in Nonthaburi opted to postpone its plan to give people who have received a single dose of the Sinovac vaccine a dose of AstraZeneca as their second jab.
Over the last 24 hours, Thailand reported 9,317 new Covid-19 cases and 87 fatalities, bringing the total infections in the kingdom to 363,029 and 2,934 deaths to date.
Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) assistant spokesperson Dr Apisamai Srirangsan said the new cases including 9,309 local transmissions of which including 2,021 through active case detection, and eight imported cases.
She said the new fatalities involved 44 men and 43 women aged between 24 and 104 years old which including 83 Thais, two Myanmar nationals, one Chinese and one Laotian.
“To date, there are 99,511 patients remain hospitalized and receiving treatment at hospitals and field hospitals nationwide. There are 3,201 patients in critical condition including 828 on ventilators,” she said.
She added that Bangkok topped the list with the highest number of cases at 2,332 and 55 fatalities over the last 24 hours.
“In Bangkok, about 17 per cent those who walk-in for Covid-19 test at hospitals were tested positive for the virus… The rate is quite high,” she said. – Bernama