Prime Minster Prayut Chan-o-cha, today (Tuesday) declared COVID-19 vaccination program Thailand’s national agenda as he urged Thai people to get vaccinated as many as possible, pointing out that vaccines are the key element which will usher Thailand through the crisis.

In his Facebook post today, the prime minister reaffirmed his confidence that Thailand would receive up to 100 million doses of vaccines this year, so that 50 million Thais would be inoculated within this year to develop herd immunity to fight against the virus. He also aimed to procure an addition of 50 million doses from different sources, making the total 150 million.

According to the prime minister, Thailand would be the production hub of the British-made AstraZeneca vaccine in Asean with Siam Bioscience, the only Thai firm authorized to produce AstraZeneca vaccine under technological transfer agreement, adding that the pharmaceutical company would deliver a minimum of 61 million doses of vaccine for the Thai people which will provide Thailand with long-term vaccine security.

He said he had asked the cabinet to adopt vaccination as the national agenda under which all aspects about the vaccine program, including vaccine procurement, distribution and vaccination will be given top priority in order to expedite the development of herd immunity in Thailand.

The prime minister also urged people to come forward to receive vaccine shots as he assured all the vaccines procured and to be procured are effective and approved by the Ministry of Public Health and have been widely used worldwide.

Several millions of people across the world, including many government leaders, have already been inoculated and experts around the world have maintained that all vaccines are effective in reducing the severity of the symptoms and can save lives.

Undesirable side effects are insignificant compared to the benefits of vaccines, said the prime minister, assuring the public that everyone who is vaccinated will be kept under close observation by doctors after their inoculation to make sure that post-vaccination side effects will be taken care of.

He claimed that all cabinet ministers, including himself, and many MPs had been inoculated without anyone of them experiencing undesirable side effects.