The first 200,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses to arrive on Wednesday will be sent to 13 provinces with high infection rates, the government said.

Taweesilp Visanuyothin, spokesman for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, said on Tuesday that the vaccination programme will be divided into two phases.


The first phase, with limited doses available, will cover:

- medical and health personnel in both government and private sector in contact with infected people;

- people with chronic diseases, diabetes and obesity with body weight of more than 100 kilogrammes;

- people aged 60 years and over;

- disease control workers in contact with patients.

The second phase, with greater availability of doses, will cover:

-          recipients from the first phase;

-          other medical and health personnel;

-          tourism-related workers;

-          workers who travel internationally;

-          the general public;

-          diplomats, staff of international organisations, foreign business people and expatriates;

-          workers in the industrial and service sectors.

Dr Taweesilp said 2 million doses from Sinovac were set to arrive from February to April.
Phase 1

The first 200,000 doses to be delivered on Wednesday will be delivered to 13 provinces with the highest infection rates, the greatest economic significance, or both.

Vaccination procedures at hospitals will take 5-7 minutes per recipient, who must then wait for 30 minutes while their condition is monitored, Dr Taweesilp said.