1.5 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, donated by the US government and which arrived in Thailand last Friday, were handed over to the Thai government this morning (Monday), with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha formally receiving it from the US Embassy in Thailand.

700,000 doses will be allocated to frontline medical personnel, which means that not all will receive shots from this batch.

The Disease Control Department today defined who is eligible to receive the vaccine:

• Medics who have had two doses of either Sinovac or Sinopharm vaccines can receive a Pfizer booster dose.
• Medics who have had only one dose of any vaccine can get Pfizer as second dose, with the interval determined by the type of vaccine used for the first shot.
• Medics who have yet to receive their first dose can get two doses of Pfizer.
• Medics who have been infected with COVID-19 and have yet to receive their first dose of vaccine can get one dose of Pfizer at least a month after their infection was diagnosed.

People who are not advised to receive the Pfizer vaccine at this time include:

• Those who received Sinovac as their first dose and AstraZeneca as their second
• Those who have received two doses of AstraZeneca
• Those who have received two doses of Sinovac and an AstraZeneca booster dose

The US has pledged to donate a total of 2.5 million doses of vaccine to Thailand, with the types of the remaining doses and their delivery schedule yet to be confirmed.

Thailand has ordered 20 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech for the public, with deliveries expected to begin in the fourth quarter of this year.

Pfizer is the first mRNA vaccine to be administered in the country. To date, whole virus Sinovac and Sinopharm and vector vaccine AstraZeneca have been used.