Hospitals in various parts of the country have been posting notices for several days that some scheduled appointments would be delayed, adding to existing public skepticism about how many doses Siam Bioscience would be able to produce each month.
The government has said it will produce 6 million doses in June, then 10 million doses each month from July to November, and 5 million doses in December.
“The vaccines will be delivered as planned,” Prime Minister
Prayuth’s government has come under fierce criticism for failure to secure timely and sufficient vaccine supplies. It also face criticism for its reliance on Siam Bioscience, which is owned by the country's king and had no previous experience in vaccine production.
Prayuth said the
Opas Karnkawinpong, director-general of the
The stadium vaccination station Prayuth visited can provide 1,500 jabs a day, said Mongkon Wanitphakdeedecha, director of
One of the people getting vaccinated there was Kanokarn Chueboonchart, who said afterward that she felt no side effects.
“I am working at a bank and I must meet with customers,” she said. "So now that I have received the shot, I feel a bit better, knowing that the vaccine will give me some protection.”
However, a surge of the coronavirus beginning in April has been devastating and underlined the need for a more ambitious vaccination campaign. The surge has accounted for 84% of the 179,886 total confirmed cases in
The government has now targeted vaccinating 70% of the population this year, a figure believed to confer herd immunity against the disease.
As of Monday,
The government has been scrambling to obtain additional supplies to supplement the Chinese-made Sinovac it has been using so far and the
Siam Bioscience was reported to have delivered its first 1.8 million doses to AstraZeneca’s local office last Wednesday, which were then turned over to the
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