Thailand Launches AstraZeneca Vaccine After Being Postponed Last Week

Vaccine AstraZeneca. (Wikimedia Commons / Gencat)

JAKARTA - Thailand will start using AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, after a short delay due to safety concerns.

As originally planned, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha and cabinet members will be the first to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Government Office spokesman Natreeya Thaweewong told reporters via text message that the injection of Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha and his ministers would be carried out on Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, Thai Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul previously said AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine would be given to the cabinet if it was approved by Thai health authorities who met on Monday.

Anutin said many countries had confirmed there were no blood clotting problems as a side effect of the vaccine and would continue to administer it.

"Our expert committee said it (the AstraZeneca vaccine) could be given. And this afternoon they will meet again to strengthen it", said Anutin.

"If there is no further information, it will be provided tomorrow", added Anutin.

Thailand's mass vaccination strategy relies heavily on AstraZeneca injections, which will be produced locally from June for regional distribution, with 61 million doses reserved for the population.

As previously reported, Thailand on Friday became the first country outside Europe to suspend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The decision was taken after authorities in Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and the Netherlands suspended the use of their vaccines due to blood clotting problems.

Thailand is known to have imported a number of doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, in addition to 200 thousand Chinese Sinovac vaccines for medical and high-risk groups. The plan is for 800 thousand doses of the Sinovac vaccine to arrive in Thailand on March 20.

AstraZeneca said on Sunday that it had carried out a careful review of data from more than 17 million people being vaccinated in the UK and the European Union. The results showed no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, or thrombocytopenia, associated with vaccine administration.