The government plans to administer about 10 million Covid-19 vaccine doses next month, with Bangkok to get the largest share and at least 70% of people in Phuket to receive their second jab.
Taweesilp Visanuyothin, spokesman for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), said yesterday it expected to receive 10 million Covid-19 vaccine doses in July and would distribute them to elderly people and those with chronic illnesses who had registered for jabs via the Mor Prom platform.
Bangkok will get at least 2.5 million doses and four other provinces are also being prioritised: Samut Prakan, Nonthaburi and Pathum Thani will share 600,000 doses and Phuket, which on July 1 will be the first province to reopen to foreign tourists, will get 200,000.
The next priority will be 23 provinces, which are either border provinces, in maximum Covid-19 control zones, or struggling with post-outbreak circumstances.
They are Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Tak, Nong Khai, Sa Kaeo, Ranong, Narathiwat, Yala, Pattani, Songkhla, Trang, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Phetchaburi, Nakhon Pathom, Ayutthaya, Chachoengsao, Chon Buri, Rayong, Chanthaburi, Buri Ram, Surat Thani (Koh Samui), Phangnga and Krabi.
They will be allocated 2.5 million doses in total, while the other 49 provinces will receive 3.5 million doses, or about 70,000 doses each.
About one million doses will go to central inoculation stations, government organisations or be set aside for responses to outbreaks.
Dr Taweesilp also said the CCSA had changed its Covid-19 vaccine procurement plan from 100 million doses this year to 150 million doses by the end of 2022.
It had already either bought or booked 105.5 million doses from four sources: AstraZeneca (61m), Sinovac (19.5m), Pfizer-BioNTech (20m) and Johnson & Johnson (5m), he said.
The government will additionally order another 28 million doses from Sinovac and 22 million doses from elsewhere. The extra stock would help the country cope with mutations of the virus and the possible need for booster third shots, Dr Taweesilp said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha plans to purchase 3 million doses of Chinese vaccines to be delivered within this month, according to a source at Government House. The PM has told the CCSA he has already asked Chinese charge d'affaires Yang Xin to help secure more vaccines.
