45 per cent of vaccines earmarked for medics, risk groups administered
Over 1.1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered to health professionals and frontline workers, Disease Control Department director-general Dr Opas Karnkawinpong said on Sunday.
“This is equal to 45 per cent of the total 2.5 million doses of vaccine that have been reserved for this group,” he said.
“The recipients include doctors, nurses, public health officers and volunteers who have high risk of contracting the virus from active case finding campaigns.”
Opas added that from February 28 to May 14, 687,909 staffers under the Ministry of Public Health had been given the first dose while 409,019 persons had been given two doses of the vaccine.
Meanwhile, 203,213 public health volunteers have been given the first jab and 82,068 had already received two jabs.
“We will continue to vaccinate medical professionals until the 100 per cent target is achieved to make sure that they are well protected against the virus while treating patients,” he added.
“Next month we will receive 6 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, and another 10 million doses in each of the following months. Medical professionals can therefore rest assured that there will surely be adequate vaccines for everyone,” said Opas.
The department had also conducted an online poll from April 29 to May 13 on their website. Among the 5,056 respondents, 60.4 per cent wanted to be vaccinated against Covid-19, 18.1 per cent said they were not sure, 9.8 per cent said they felt indifferent whether or not they got the vaccine, and 11.7 per cent said they did not want to be vaccinated.
The reasons for getting vaccinated among the respondents were: To prevent infection (45.9 per cent), to prevent severe symptoms after infection (26.5 per cent), to reduce chances of death due to underlying health problems (8.2), to resume their normal lifestyle (4.5 per cent) and to travel overseas (2.3 per cent).