The Public Health Ministry has decided to use the AstraZeneca vaccine for the second jab for those who received Sinovac as the first dose.

Public Health Minister Anutin Chanvirakul said AstraZeneca would be given as the second shot three or four weeks after the Sinovac jab. A combination of the two vaccines would provide a better defence against the Delta variant of the virus, he said.

Mr Anutin did not say what people who have had two doses of Sinovac should do, or how it would affect people awaiting their first or second dose of the Astra Zeneca vaccine.

Delta is the highly contagious variant of the virus first detected in India and rapidly becoming the dominant strain in Thailand

Another key measure announced was a booster shot drive starting this month for health workers on the front line who had received two doses. They would receive a dose of the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccine.

He said daily fatalities could exceed 100 and new cases rise above 10,000 a day if no adjustments were made to the current programme.