Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has volunteered to be the first person to be injected with an experimental Thai-made Covid-19 vaccine, according to Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob.
Mr Saksayam said Mr Anutin informed him at a recent meeting of the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration that the development of a Covid-19 vaccine by Thai researchers is making tremendous progress.
Monkeys have already received the trial vaccine and in the next step, it will be injected into humans. Mr Anutin was the first volunteer, Mr Saksayam said.
When Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha asked in the meeting for volunteers, Mr Anutin proposed himself as the first in Thailand to receive the jab, Mr Saksayam said.
National Vaccine Institute director Nakorn Premsri last month said an mRNA-type of vaccine developed by Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Medicine had been tested in monkeys from May 23.
Mr Anutin reportedly said at the meeting if the experiments can proceed according to plan, Thailand might have good news about a vaccine next year.
