Thailand is in the process of procuring 120 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for next year, especially for children aged 3-11, who have not yet been vaccinated, and for booster jabs.
CCSA Spokesman Dr. Taweesin Visanuyothin said today (Monday) that he expects the deals to be
The vaccines to be procured for next year include 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca viral vector vaccine, 30-50 million doses of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine and the rest of other makes.
According to the procurement plan, the AstraZeneca vaccine is to be delivered in three lots; 15 million doses during the first quarter of next year, 30 million doses in the second quarter and 15 million doses in the third. Payments for the vaccines are to be made in Thai currency and Thailand has the right to opt for second-generation vaccines, once they are developed and approved for use in humans.
The first lot of 7.5 million Pfizer vaccine doses are due to be delivered during the first quarter of next year, 7.5 million doses in the second quarter and 17.5 million doses in each of the third and fourth quarters.
Dr. Taweesin said Thailand has the right to change the Pfizer vaccine to paediatric vaccine, or adapted vaccine, once they are approved.
Quoting the Thai Foreign Ministry, he said that Spain has offered to sell 165,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine and 2,788,110 doses of Pfizer vaccine to Thailand at a cost of 2.9 and 15.5 Euros per dose respectively, while Hungary is offering 400,000 doses of AstraZeneca for sale at 1.78 Euros each.
He said, however, that the selling prices do not include other expenses, such as packaging, storage costs, freight, transport from the delivery point, domestic transportation costs, customs duties, value-added taxes and insurance fees.
Dr. Taweesin said that, by November this year, 70% of Thailand’s population will have received their first vaccine jab and 80% by December.
70% of the population will have been inoculated with two vaccine shots within December. 1-2 million doses are to be administered as third booster shots, to those who have received two vaccine doses, from October through December.
As of Monday, Thailand has administered 50.56 million vaccine doses, 17.89 million of which are second doses, accounting for 25.56% of the entire population including foreign residents.
