Thailand approves third dose of Covid-19 vaccine for health workers

Bangkok, Jul 12 (EFE).- Thai Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said Monday that health personnel will receive a third dose of the vaccine against Covid-19 to improve protection against new variants of the virus.

The country’s doctors and nurses on the front line against Covid-19 began receiving doses of the jab produced by Chinese pharmaceutical Sinovac in April.

Given the detection of some infections among health workers who have previously been vaccinated, Thai authorities have approved that a third dose be administered from this month among the vaccines produced by AstraZeneca or Pfizer.

The Health Ministry reported Sunday that from April to July at least 618 vaccinated health workers have been infected by the virus out of a total of 677,348.

Thailand began Monday to apply a series of restriction measures in the areas most affected by the current outbreak, including Bangkok and the surrounding provinces where many of the infections are linked to the delta variant.

Among the restrictions is a night curfew, the prohibition of meetings of more than five people and the closure of non-essential services and businesses, in addition to urging to work from home, among others.

The country, which is experiencing its worst wave of infections and deaths throughout the pandemic, registered 8,656 new cases and 80 deaths Monday, bringing the total to more than 345,000 infections, including 2,791 deaths.

The vaccination rate is lagging behind official forecasts and, according to ministry data, almost 5 percent of the 69.7 million Thais have received the full dosage of the vaccine.

Anutin also said people previously vaccinated with a single dose of Sinovac will now be able to choose the AstraZeneca drug as a second dose with the aim of increasing protection against the delta variant. EFE

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