FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
nationthailand

Senior citizens registered on Mohpromt platform will get AstraZeneca vaccine

Senior citizens registered on Mohpromt platform will get AstraZeneca vaccine

The Public Health Ministry has clarified that elderly people who had registered for vaccination through the “MohPromt” application would be receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The clarification came following confusion over a communicable diseases committee decision to administer Sinovac vaccine to healthy elderly people so as to expand opportunities for inoculation for the elderly in outbreak areas.

Dr Sophon Mekthon, assistant to the Minister of Public Health, calmed public concerns about the decision by the National Communicable Diseases Committee that Sinovac vaccine would be administered to healthy people aged 60 and above.

He said Chinese research data showed that the vaccine was safe and stimulated the immune system well.

He clarified that the aim of the committee was to expand opportunities for the elderly in the Covid-19 areas to get vaccinated as soon as possible to reduce infection rates, limit infection circles, decrease severe illness and death instead of waiting for the AstraZeneca vaccine. Retired medical personnel who still work with risk groups also can be inoculated with Sinovac.

Sophon, however, made it clear that senior citizens and seven groups of chronic patients who have registered for vaccination through the Mohpromt platform will get the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is the country's main vaccine. There will be 16 million doses of this vaccine available in June and July. The use of Sinovac vaccine is at the discretion of the doctor, while other vaccines covering all population groups would come later, he said.

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