Walk-in jabs begin in hard-hit province

Samut Sakhon will offer walk-in Covid-19 vaccination services for people aged 18 and over, starting from today.

The provincial communicable disease control committee recently resolved to offer walk-in Covid-19 inoculations at 11 venues, including private and public hospitals, starting from today, provincial health office chief Naretrit Khadthaseema said yesterday.

"Anyone aged 18 and over who has a home registered in Samut Sakhon, as well as other people who stay in the province, can walk in and get vaccinated at those places," he said.

People will receive a first dose of Sinovac and then the AstraZeneca vaccine as the second, he said on the provincial public relations Facebook page. The locations were not listed.

Walk-in services would be increased at community-level health promotion hospitals as needed, Dr Naretrit said.

"Now, 60-70% of people in vulnerable groups have received a Covid-19 vaccine. Inoculation services will go ahead, as we want 100% of vulnerable people to be vaccinated, or as many of them as possible.

"If people in these groups are infected, they could suffer severe symptoms," Dr Naretrit said.

There were about 500,000 people in the province's target group who had yet to receive the vaccine. He said there would be an adequate supply as more vaccines were gradually allocated to the province.

Samut Sakhon reported 16 more Covid-19 deaths and another 983 cases yesterday. The province was at the epicentre of the pandemic during the second wave of Covid-19 in the country earlier this year, before Thailand entered its third and latest wave in April.

Of the new cases, 676 were confirmed at hospitals, 273 were found at bubbled and sealed-off factories and 34 were detected via mass testing.

The cases found at hospitals were 535 people living in Samut Sakhon (476 Thais and 59 foreign nationals) and 141 people from other provinces (91 Thais and 50 foreign nationals).

The 273 cases found at the sealed-off factories involved 30 Thais and 243 foreign nationals.

The 34 cases detected via mass testing comprised of 33 Thais and one foreign national, the provincial public relations office said on its Facebook page yesterday.

The 983 new infections brought the provincial total to 92,074 cases, of which 70,303 had recovered and been discharged. A total of 21,204 were still under treatment in hospitals. The latest 16 deaths brought the province's cumulative Covid-19 fatalities to 567.