Spilornis

There's a new AZ vaccine (AZ 2816) in advanced Phase 3 trials.

Its primary role is as a booster.

In simple terms it's a tweak of the existing AZ designed to better fight Delta

https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2021/first-covid-19-variant-vaccine-azd2816-phase-ii-iii-trial-participants-vaccinated.html

Not sure what changes to the AZ production process will be necessary if it proves effective

5 minutes ago, cyril sneer said:

how are the vaccinations going?

 

how much % rise this week compared with the week before?

about the same... maybe slightly down

Perhaps to be expected as the latest vaccines are not being supplied at the same rate as Sinovac.

Hopefully Thai produced AZ ramps up

https://covidvax.live/location/tha

Any more news on the Thai production of AZ.

Even if Thailand has no need for it there is a great need in other countries

As I understand it this vaccine registration is not open for those on tourist visas.

Is that correct?

Many thanks

Not often that I would point to Malaysia as a model of efficiency but its vaccine rollout has been among the best in the world (Sinovac efficacy aside).

Relies upon everyone registering on the national app (also used for venue scanning) and you get notified of an appointment time at one of the many mass vaccination centres.

Currently 40% of the adult population has its first dose and of the elderly who took Sinovac most have had their second.

Recently they have moved to offering Pfizer as well as AZ. (To overcome AZ reluctance it was offered to everyone by means of on line registration of interest. Available doses were booked out within 48 hours. The interval between doses for AZ is 9 weeks.)

No distinction that I know of was made between Malaysians and foreigners.

Malaysia like most SEA nations was very late in ordering vaccines.

1 hour ago, onekoolguy said:

I kind of agree, but wonder if it will be ok to take Moderna or other more effective vaccines on top of the Sinovac?

China are about to approve Pfizer and manufacture it locally.

Intention is to use it as a booster.

Not a medico but as Moderna and Pfizer are both MRNA based I suspect that Moderna will also be a good booster.

https://thediplomat.com/2021/07/report-china-plans-biontech-booster-for-its-population/

4 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

They do.

The chart has daily shots along with target graph. Currently the actual daily jabs are well below target.

Sorry my Thai is no good.

Is that the figure 317,506 in the second diagram in the opening post

Thanks

4 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

They do.

The chart has daily shots along with target graph. Currently the actual daily jabs are well below target.

Sorry my Thai is no good.

Is that the figure 317,506 in the second diagram in the opening post

Thanks

Would be great if those in the opening few posts who so brilliantly put up the key data summaries could start to add a daily vaccination chart.

Malaysia will soon be vaccinating final year school students with Pfizer. The rationale is that they are entitled to face to face learning in their final year. Schools have been and will be closed for most of 2021 and online learning has been very difficult especially for the lower socio economic groups where families are forced to share one phone as they cannot afford laptops etc.

For children generally their vaccine time will come but not until 2022.

13 minutes ago, wensiensheng said:

Can you elaborate on “AZ production is trending upwards as well”?

As an example India is now running close to 200M per month. Plants in Europe, USA, Japan and Australia are now producing in excess of local demand. A lot of this is due to the bans on AZ for under 40's due to the very low chance of blood clots. In the USA it's wholly exported now as it was never approved for local use.

MRNA vaccines will remain constrained from a supply viewpoint for at least 3-4 months as they are increasingly being used in the West for vaccinating the lower age groups.

Malaysia is expecting vaccines of various kinds totalling 12 million during July.

By the way there's a special Moderna booster (designed for Delta etc) available for delivery in January. Hopefully Governments are ordering now.

16 minutes ago, wensiensheng said:

I think the infrastructure to deliver a high number of jabs is there. I mean, they did a good number the first couple of days.

 

the two issues as I see them are:

 

1. No vaccines to give

 

2. If they had enough vaccines, maintaining a high level of commitment for an extended period of time.

 

so in a sense, it is impossible just because of 1. above.

I’d argue 2. above also makes it impossible but that is just an opinion. However, 1. is a certainty.

The Chinese production capacity is massive. Sure we'd all prefer a western vaccine but as a circuit breaker you take what you can get.

AZ production is trending upwards as well.

45 minutes ago, anchadian said:

National Vaccination Rollout:

 

DAY 22: 269,459

DAY 23: 255,734

DAY 24: 254,992

DAY 25: 299,485

DAY 26: 345,109

DAY 27: 98,605 <— Saturday

DAY 28: 106,851 <— Sunday

DAY 29: 280,642

DAY 30: 269,653

DAY 31: 291,575

 

TOTAL: 7,519,097 doses

 

https://twitter.com/ThaiNewsReports/status/1413005759198109699

 

Those daily figures for the first 3 weeks are quite reasonable and compare well with countries of similar size.

The challenge is to double the daily figure before the end of the month to 500k per day and get to 700k per day in August.

Not impossible... Malaysia is almost punching 400k per day this week when last week it's figures were in the mid 200k's

1 hour ago, sandyf said:

It is an ugly fish and looks like Barramundi .

Seabass is barramundi.

Barramundi is the Australian name for it. There's a push in Australia to limit the term "barramundi" to Australian wild fish or at most Australian farmed fish.

Buy it fresh in any Asian market and ask them to fillet it for you. Unfortunately you will probably still end up with some bones. Pan fried is okay but battered and deep fried the bones may pose a problem.

Garupa (groper) or Kerapa as it's called in Malaysia is magnificent but as others have said don't ruin it by deep frying it.

Have had catfish a few times. Very nice.

12 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

1 billion doses are expected to be produce this year from China.

It's a lot more than that.

China has given almost one billion doses to its own citizens in the last four months alone.

My guess is that 2021 production will be closer to 3 billion

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jun/15/china-set-to-deliver-1bn-covid-vaccine-doses-by-end-of-this-week

12 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

It is a  positive indication that the  doses are being produced.  Yes, it is slow and inadequate, but it is a start. 

The Australian plant has now been putting out 1M AZ doses per week since late March. They had been preparing since about October last year. Ended up being around 2 months behind schedule.

Thailand IIRC started up in Feb/March so with the benefit of learning from the earlier mistakes of others they should be pumping out the AZ in numbers really soon.

The big AZ producer in India (Serum) has had real difficulties scaling up much past 50M a month. They had forecast 200M a month

China about to give its Billionth dose.

Slow I know but it's starting

Is that 1.8M of AZ for whole of the month of June?

Need to increase that production rate by at least five fold to make a real impact.

Still it's a start and at least provides proof of successful manufacture

4 hours ago, DavisH said:

Not unexpected. The UK has about 4x the numbe of nursing staff per head of population than Thailand. About 200K jabs were given yeasterday. My wife was doign about 100 a day at Bang Sue station. It's not a fast process as it requires a medical check first, the jab, then sitting around for 30 mins to check for adverse reactions. I'd be happy to see 500K jabs a day - but then doses will beome limiting if they can only supply 10M a month. 

Agree but other than the jab each step can be done by a non medical person with simple organisational skills. Any problem referred to roaming medical staff.

The jab itself can be done in about one minute.

Chinese nurses are reportedly giving around 30-40per hour using this approach.

As you say supply and getting the supply to the vaccination centre is the real problem

1 hour ago, anchadian said:

The locally developed Covid-19 vaccine – ChulaCov19 – will be ready for human trials this month after proving to be effective in lab tests.

Interesting

As I understand the ethics rules because there are now known vaccines it is not permitted to use placebos.

I wonder if the knowledge that you are definitely vaccinated changes behaviour.

Good luck to the trial participants. Not sure I'd like to be one especially if in the vulnerable category knowing there are working vaccines shortly available.

20 hours ago, phetphet said:

I think they sent some to AZ last week for testing and it was approved.  

Based on the Australian experience you are correct.

What nobody knew is that each subsequent batch undergoes a six week approval process before release.

May be a while before the trucks roll

In Malaysia the Chinese vaccines seem to be preferred to AZ.

Why... who knows

Anyway Govt opened up AZ to anyone who wanted it. Available stock... around 500k were booked out within hours.

It was such a success they intend to continue that method with AZ for the next few months at least.