FILE PHOTO: A health worker holds a syringe and a vial of the Sinovac coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at a market in Bangkok, Thailand, March 17, 2021. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand will stop using the COVID-19 vaccine of China's Sinovac when its current stock finishes, a senior official said on Monday, having used the shot extensively in combination with Western-developed vaccines.

 

Thailand used over 31.5 million Sinovac doses since February, starting with two doses to frontline workers, high-risk groups and residents of Phuket, a holiday island that reopened to tourists early in a pilot scheme.

 

In July, Thailand started inoculating people with Sinovac as a first dose followed by the Oxford University-developed AstraZeneca. Thailand was the first country to combine a Chinese and Western shots, a strategy its health officials said has proved effective.

 

"We expect to have distributed all Sinovac doses this week," said health official Opas Karnkawinpong, adding the programme will switch to combining the AstraZeneca vaccine with that made by Pfizer and BioNTech .

 

Thailand next year plans to buy 120 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in total and has already booked 60 million doses of AstraZeneca, a vaccine it manufactures locally.

 

Thailand has said it will only procure vaccines effective against new variants.

 

It has so far vaccinated 36% of the estimated 72 million people who live in Thailand and hopes to reach 70% by year-end.

 

The country is forging ahead with a quarantine-free reopening plan next month of 17 provinces to vaccinated arrivals from low risk countries. Included will be destinations like Pattaya, Hua Hin, Chiang Mai and Bangkok.

 

Thailand has recorded nearly 1.8 million cases and 18,336 fatalities overall, more than 98% in the past seven months.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-10-18

 

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(Reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Martin Petty)

a bit late

That will upset their Chinese friends....

1 minute ago, jacko45k said:

That will upset their Chinese friends....

They'll make it up by buying more faulty ATK test kits instead.

Headline for tomorrow - "Updated Sinovac Mk2 effective against all existing variants, Thailand orders 10,000,000 doses".

 

Buy they'll except it when Covax rolls out.

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/13/asia/covax-china-vaccines-intl-hnk/index.html

hahaha wife told me today she and her friends are waiting until after the 19th to register for their vaccinations as pfizer and AZ will be on the menu ????

 

 

the last order from those 31mln came in mid of August.

Two months later they are still in the warehouse. 

A bit slow action

It's a good enough vaccine.

 

Sure, if you can get hold of enough Pfizer or whatever, but I don't think that is the case, certainly not from my own personal experience as I'm still waiting for my second jab.

Can they bring the Lalisa concert forward to celebrate this event?

Sinovac isn't very good, but Sinopharm seems much better. Of course the gold standard is Pfizer.

 

I think Sinopharm followed up by AZ should be ok!

All the wasted money and drama.

 

I do see why China was a bit miffed. Thai government totally boned vaccine procurement and to some sense China came to the rescue. Think how unhappy the population would be without any vaccine.

 

Now, Thailand has been able to beg borrow steal (?) vaccines and we're at a whopping 30%

 

The cost of the vaccine or what the Thai government paid is was obscene.

Gold standard are your own antibodies.

14 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

That will upset their Chinese friends....

Thailand will be buying sinopharm vaccines instead. They are already buying it. Sinopharm has very little in terms of size effects, unlike AZ and Pfizer. Many Thais prefer sinopharm for that reason. 

 

Personally, I have had 1 AZ shot so far, with a fair bit of side effects. It does make me worry about what it is doing to my body (beside the protection against covid). 

Yeah, you say that now.

 

But just when you get out, they pull you back in.

 

 

And what about sinopharm?

 

 

The amount of graft and skim on sinovac was MASSIVE. Dozens of families increased their generational wealth immensely. Probably no more room to store their cash, for now.

 

 

 

 

Wait, I thought they just ordered 12 million more doses last month.  Have they arrived and been used?

23 minutes ago, wadman said:

Thailand will be buying sinopharm vaccines instead. They are already buying it. Sinopharm has very little in terms of size effects, unlike AZ and Pfizer. Many Thais prefer sinopharm for that reason. 

 

Personally, I have had 1 AZ shot so far, with a fair bit of side effects. It does make me worry about what it is doing to my body (beside the protection against covid). 

And I have had 2 Pfizer shots without reaction bar a little tiredness. Individual results are not really worth mention....

Protection from Covid is what is important and  AZ and Pfizer have better results. Thais I know are unhappy with receiving Sinovax... and would have liked the Pfizer, so I do not know why you perceive different. 

1 minute ago, jacko45k said:

And I have had 2 Pfizer shots without reaction bar a little tiredness. Individual results are not really worth mention....

Protection from Covid is what is important and  AZ and Pfizer have better results. Thais I know are unhappy with receiving Sinovax... and would have liked the Pfizer, so I do not know why you perceive different. 

It's not just individual results. Generally speaking, the picture is quite consistent: AZ and Pfizer likely to result in significant side effects, sinopharm (or even sinovac) a lot less so. 

 

1 hour ago, snoop1130 said:

Thailand has said it will only procure vaccines effective against new variants.

genius, thank the lord for this am  so  happy they have genius  like this  here  in Thailand

59 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Headline for tomorrow - "Updated Sinovac Mk2 effective against all existing variants, Thailand orders 10,000,000 doses".

 

and  will vaccinate 1  billion a  day  on the Kings  Birthday

1 hour ago, snoop1130 said:

The country is forging ahead with a quarantine-free reopening plan next month

FAKE  NEWS  1 day quarantine IS  NOT  no quarantine

1 hour ago, GeorgeCross said:

hahaha wife told me today she and her friends are waiting until after the 19th to register for their vaccinations as pfizer and AZ will be on the menu ????

 

 

why is that amusing?

1 hour ago, Chad3000 said:

Gold standard are your own antibodies.

Exactly. Which are produced in your body in advance of an infection in mass quantities ready for battle by using a vaccine. Why are the anti vaxxers so daft they can't understand this simple concept? 

This has to be the stupidest announcement ever.  Now no one would want it. 

 

A post with a link to a Questionable Source has been removed as well as the replies. 

 

A troll post has been removed. 

Obviously going to rely on more Donations from the rest of the world..... 

10 hours ago, Crossy said:

Headline for tomorrow - "Updated Sinovac Mk2 effective against all existing variants, Thailand orders 10,000,000 doses".

 

Should read : 

 

Headline for tomorrow - "Updated Sinovac Mk2 effective against all existing variants, and plague, smallpox, Rubella, malaria, ebola, the common cold and period pains and toothache. Thailand orders 200,000,000 doses".

 

13 hours ago, smedly said:

a bit late

For those who inject that <deleted> into the body, lot

 of them got stoned

13 hours ago, wadman said:

It's not just individual results. Generally speaking, the picture is quite consistent: AZ and Pfizer likely to result in significant side effects, sinopharm (or even sinovac) a lot less so. 

 

Define “significant”.
 

A bit oftiredness and/or sore arm for a couple of days isn’t significant. Of all the people I know in the UK, Singapore and Thailand, only one had “significant” side effects and that was over in a couple of days. They did feel bad for those two days though.

 

so based on my little study, your statement “AZ and Pfizer likely to result in significant side effects,” is entirely false.

 

agreed, sinovac seems even less likely to have significant side effects, but don’t play up what isn’t there on the others.

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Thailand has said it will only procure vaccines effective against new variants.

That means that they are fully aware of the fact that Sinovac does not protect against the dominant Virus variant , Delta .

What about the millions of people who had been vaxxed with Sinovac ?

They just continued to use that ineffective vaccine to get rid of their stock of it ?