Prayut admits there have been glitches in vaccine rollout

However, he said, everybody in Thailand has the right to be vaccinated and that his government’s aim is to provide 50 million jabs in the first phase.

He also admitted that there has been a delay in the delivery of doses as the Covid-19 vaccine is in high demand globally. Besides, he said, it takes the authorities three to four days to check each lot of vaccines for efficacy. Prayut said the rollout has to be managed monthly as the doses are delivered in small lots.

Separately, Supakit Sirilak, director-general of the Department of Medical Sciences, said Siam Biotech has sent AstraZeneca vaccine samples from five lots for testing and they have all passed the test. This means there are 14 lots of AstraZeneca jabs ready for use from June 7, he said. Each lot comprises 1 to 2 million doses.