The Thai Ministry of Labour will discuss, with the Social Security Board, the possibility of procuring COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate over 2.3 million migrant workers covered by the social security scheme.
Labour Minister Suchart Chomklin said today (Thursday) that, if the Social Security Board agrees with this idea, the Labour Ministry will be able to proceed with procuring the vaccines, at an estimated cost of about three billion baht, to be administered to migrant workers who make contributions to the Social Security Fund.
Migrant manual labour is vital to Thai industries and the economy and, therefore, they should not be left out of thevaccination program, said the minister.
The government’s vaccination program is, initially, aimed at frontline medical personnel, people who have been working in close contact with the infected, elderly people, those suffering from congenital diseases and people in high-risk areas. The general public will receive the vaccines later, as they becomeavailable.
Mr. Suchart also said that the ministry also plans to set up a hospital exclusively for people covered by the social security program, as well as a social security bank to help people under the social security program.
