Thailand has signed a purchaseorder for 20 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine develop byPfizer and BioNTech to be delivered beforethe end of this year, its health minister said.
Details of the deal, delivery timeframe and the vaccine’sapproval by the Food and Drug Administration would be worked outin about a month, Thai Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul saidon Thursday.
Thailand also plan to buy 5 million doses of Johnson &Johnson’s single-shot vaccine within this year, Anutinsaid.
Thailand is racing to secure vaccines for its massimmunisation campaign that started on Monday, two months afterit was hit by its biggest coronavirus outbreak so far, driven byhighly contagious variants.
The programme had relied heavily on its reserved 61 milliondoses of locally-made AstraZeneca vaccines, but thegovernment has tried to diversify its sources to meet its targetof acquiring 100 million doses by year-end.
About 4.1 million of Thailand’s more than 66 million peoplehave so far received a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine
