BANGKOK: More than 600 medical workers (frontliners) have been infected with Covid-19 even though they had already received two doses of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine.
According to Thailand’s health ministry, out of 677,348 medical workers who received two doses of Sinovac, 618 got infected.
An expert panel has recommended a third dose to trigger immunity for medical workers who are at risk, senior health official Sopon Iamsirithawon, told reporters in a media briefing today.
“This will be a different vaccine, either viral vector AstraZeneca or an mRNA vaccine, which Thailand will be receiving in the near term,” he said.
The announcement comes as the country reported a record high of 9,418 community infections today. On Saturday authorities reported a record of 91 new daily coronavirus fatalities.
Thailand has reported a total of 336,371 confirmed infections and 2,711 fatalities since the pandemic began last year.
The majority of Thailand’s medical and frontline workers were given Sinovac shots after February with the viral vector vaccine from AstraZeneca arriving in June.
Thailand is expecting a donation of 1.5 million Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines from the US later this month and has ordered 20 million doses that will be delivered after October.
Neighbouring Indonesia, which has also heavily relied on Sinovac, said on Friday it would give the Moderna vaccine as boosters to medical worker
