BANGKOK: The Head of the National Thai Vaccine Institute Apologizes Wednesday for the launch of a slow and inadequate Coronavirus vaccine, promising to join the Covax program that is not supported to receive supplies from the vaccine ponds donated next year.
Thailand fought against a surge in Coronavirus who punished who pushed new cases and death to record the highest almost every day.
There was a fear that the numbers would be much worse because the government failed to secure significant vaccine equipment before the attack.
The spread of a virus variant that is very contagious from the virus has worsened the situation, as Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha government seeks to buy a vaccine to increase the simple amount in the hands of Sinovac and Sinopharm from China and AstraZeneca produced locally.
In addition to failing to buy a sufficient vaccine, the Prayuth government has experienced severe criticism because some studies show China’s vaccine is less effective against the Delta variant than produced by Pfizer and modern.
“I apologize to people that the National Institute of Vaccine has not succeeded in getting a number of vaccines that are quite suitable for this situation, even though we have tried their best,” said Director of the Premsi Nakorn Vaccine Institute at a press conference.
“Mutation (virus) is something unpredictable, which has caused a faster deployment than last year.
The efforts to procure vaccines are not in accordance with the current situation.” He said Thailand was in the process of joining Covax, initiatives throughout the world.
aiming for fair access to the Covid-19 vaccine directed by GAVI, vaccine alliance; Coalition for the innovation of epidemic preparedness and world health organizations.
Nakorn said he expected Thailand to be able to receive a vaccine from Covax in the first quarter of next year.
Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia that does not join Covax.
The government explained in February that since Thailand was categorized as a middle-income country, it would not get a free or cheap vaccine from this program.
He claimed it had to pay high prices in advance without knowing which vaccine would be obtained and when it would get it.
“Buying a vaccine directly from the manufacturer is the right choice because it is more flexible,” said Government spokesman Anucha Buraphachaisri at the time.
The explanation was then criticized when the government immediately imported Sinovac at high prices even though the question had emerged about its efficacy.
Thailand plans to provide 100 million inoculation this year and have ordered 105.5 million doses of several companies.
From them, 61 million doses became AstraZeneca vaccines produced by Siam Bioscience, a company owned by King Thailand, 19.5 million doses from Sinovac, 20 million doses of Pfizer and 5 million doses of Johnson & Johnson.
However, last week, new doubts were thrown on plans when it was revealed that Siam Bioscience could not possibly give its full shares until May 2022 due to production problems.
Supakit Sirilak, Head of the Department of Medical Sciences, told the same press conference that Thailand still negotiated with other vaccine makers to secure additional supplies.
“Our target to be inoculating 100 million doses this year is still possible,” he said.
Thailand reported 13,002 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, a new record, brought the total confirmed to 439,477 cases.
It has been given around 14.8 million vaccine doses, including 10.7 million doses since June.
About 11.3 million people, or 16 percent of the 69 million country populations have received at least one dose.