The 415,000 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine donated by the United Kingdom arrived in Thailand last night. They will be used with other AstraZeneca jabs in Thailand’s national vaccine rollout, both locally produced and donated by Japan.
The UK in Thailand Facebook page managed by the British Embassy in Bangkok has posted pictures of the arrival of 415,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, which were delivered to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport onTuesday night around 9 p.m..
Representing the Thai government in the receipt of these UK-donated jabs were the Department of Disease Control’s (DDC) Deputy Director General Dr Sopon Iamsirithaworn, and the Director General of the Department of European Affairs Chulamanee Chartsuwan.
The UK donated jabs will enter Thailand’s national inoculation campaign, where AstraZeneca is one of the main vaccine brands being offered. The country has so far received or purchased AstraZeneca doses from South Korea, donated AstraZeneca jabs from Japan, with this donation from the UK being the latest.
Most AstraZeneca doses given in Thailand are locally produced by AstraZeneca’s contract manufacturing partner Siam Bioscience, which manufactures the doses for Thailand as well as other countries in the Southeast Asian and Asian region.
AstraZeneca Thailand said yesterday it had delivered a total of 5.3 million doses in July to Thailand, as part of the total 61 million doses ordered.
The company says it has delivered a total of 11.3 million doses of the Oxford-developed vaccine to the country as of 31st July, and expects to deliver around 5-6 million shots per month.
Mr James Teague, Managing Director of AstraZeneca Thailand, said today that Siam Bioscience, as AstraZeneca’s local manufacturing partner in Thailand, has achieved the company’s highest quality of vaccine manufacturing, stressing AstraZeneca is willing to continue working with Siam Bioscience to find ways to expedite vaccine delivery.
The company says it is proud to be working with Siam Bioscience, and to be contributing to the national inoculation program in order to help Thai people get through this crisis together quickly.
Several countries have donated a range of COVID-19 vaccines across various technologies to Thailand, starting with 1 million doses of inactivated Sinovac vaccine from China, 1.05 million doses of viral vector AstraZeneca vaccine from Japan, and 1.5 million doses of mRNA Pfizer-BioNTech from the US.
The UK-donated doses will be used along with other doses procured by the Thai government to supply Thailand’s national inoculation campaign, which is racing against the surge of cases in the country’s biggest COVID-19 wave yet.
