880 medical personnel, about 54% of them nurses and assistant nurses, were infected with COVID-19 between April 1st and July 10th, and of these, seven have died, according to Dr. Sophon Iamsirsithavorn, deputy director-general of Disease Control Department.
He said, today (Sunday), that over 97% of Thailand’s 700,000 medics are fully inoculated, adding that of the seven deaths, five of them were not vaccinated, one had received just one Sinovac dose and the other had received two.
He noted that most of the infected medics were among those who were fully inoculated, with the exception of only 173 who are not vaccinated.
Dr. Sophon also disclosed that the National Communicable Committee will meet tomorrow (Monday) to discuss the third booster jab for frontline medical personnel, as proposed by the technical committee.
Immunology, virology and infectious disease experts have concluded that the level of antibodies in those inoculated with two doses of Sinovac vaccine will reduce substantially over the period following the second dose and, hence, the need for a booster shot for frontline medics.
Dr. Sophon said that the booster shot will be of a different make of vaccine, which may be AstraZeneca, which is viral vector vaccine, or an mRNA vaccine like Pfizer/BioNTech.
Regarding the recent death of a nurse from COVID-19, as reported in social media, he said that the nurse received the second Sinovac dose in May and she might have contracted the virus in the course of her duty looking after COVID-19 patients, adding that she also had weight problem, which could be a risk factor regarding the severity of the symptoms.
