Anutin eyes way of delivering jabs to walk-ins
In a bid to inoculate as many people as possible, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Wednesday that his ministry is looking into ways of using extra jabs on people who have not registered on the Mor Phrom platform.
“I may be speaking out of turn why I say jabs should be provided to walk-ins as well,” Anutin said, referring to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s comment on Tuesday that no shots would be given to walk-ins.
Anutin said the “ministry will prioritise those who have registered, but there will always be some doses leftover due to no-shows.
“Also, each box of AstraZeneca doses carries 12 vials of the vaccine even though the box says 10. This means we will have two extra doses for every 10 registrants,” Anutin pointed out.
“Once the vaccines are brought out of storage, we can’t put them back in and they need to be used up.
“To avoid wastage, vaccination stations can invite people living nearby to get a jab, regardless of their registration status,” Anutin said.
“This announcement can be made three or four hours after the administration of doses begins each day, once officials have a total headcount of people who have registered and shown up at the unit.”
Prayut had said on Tuesday that he did not want jabs to be provided to walk-ins at the moment as Thailand does not have a large enough stock of vaccines to cover all citizens.
“I want the primary registration channel to still be the Mor Phrom app or Line account and have told related agencies to fix the platforms after people had problems registering,” Prayut said.