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Thailand will launch its Covid-19 vaccination program on Monday, focusing mainly on the Oxford / AstraZeneca jab produced at Siam Bioscience, a company owned by King Maha Vajiralongkorn that had never produced any vaccines.
The launch is very important for the government of Prayuth Chan-ocha, which faces growing anger from citizens and businesses over delays in making vaccines available, and for AstraZeneca, which chose Thailand as its production center of Southeast Asia.
Siam Bioscience will produce 200 million doses of the coronavirus test, even for export.
Thailand struggles with one increased infections of about 2,000-4,000 reported new cases a day, the highest since the start of the pandemic.
Like his regional colleagues Vietnam i Taiwan, the kingdom caused Covid-19 infections to be reduced to zero by 2020. The increase in cases has been attributed to more contagious variants of the coronavirus that have spread rapidly through markets, prisons and labor camps. .
But there have been signs of delays in production at Siam Bioscience. The Philippines dit last week, a first batch of doses of 17 million expected from Thailand had been delayed and reduced in size.
Separately, the Society of Rural Physicians of Thailand has alleged that the government imported 500,000 doses of the South Korean AstraZeneca vaccine to make up for a production deficit. Some Thais reported that they were told they could wait for vaccination appointments in June, only to be warned that they had been postponed.
The Thai government last week delivery received of 1.8 million jab doses of AstraZeneca, the first of the 6 million vaccines scheduled to arrive this month. He insists the launch is on time, but a government spokesman declined to answer a question from the Financial Times about whether it would be using jabs imported from South Korea along with others made locally. Siam Bioscience declined to comment and AstraZeneca’s Thai office did not respond to any requests for comment.
The Thai Enquirer, a direct online publication, last week called Siam Bioscience an “international disgrace.”
“Even the Serum Institute in India it has problems, so it would be wrong to expect everything with the first producer Siam Bioscience to go as smooth as silk, “said Pavida Pananond, a professor of international business at Thammasat Business School, referring to the Indian vaccine maker. “But AstraZeneca could do a lot of things in advance.”
As infections increased earlier this year, the Thai government was accused of relying too much on a single vaccine given to a first vaccine producer. More recently, it has moved to boost the puncture supplies of alternative suppliers, such as Sinovac, the Chinese pharmaceutical company, BioNTech / Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson, the U.S. drug maker.
Thailand ‘s freedom to criticize Siam Bioscience has been limited by the fact that the the billionaire king has itand making comments that are considered insulting to the royal family is a criminal offense.
Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, Thailand’s most prominent opposition figure, was charged with lesa-majesty and “computer crimes” in January after online comments about what he called the “royal vaccine.”
The power and wealth of the 69-year-old Thai king received unusual criticism from last year’s youth participants. democratic protests.
Additional reports from Ryn Jirenuwat in Bangkok
Follow on Twitter: @JohnReedwrites
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