Thailand Students Receive China-Based COVID-19 Vaccine

Local media in Thailand reported today the Chulabhorn Royal Academy (CRA) began its COVID-19 vaccination campaign for schoolchildren aged 10-18 years in Bangkok. The CRA offered 2,000 students the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine.

CRA staff administered this China-produced COVID-19 vaccine with parents' approval, confirmed the Bangkok Post on September 20, 2021.

The CRA plans to vaccinate about 180,000 students from 132 schools near Bangkok who have applied to the academy for vaccination.

The Royal College of Chulabhorn began offering the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine to various populations in Thailand on August 24, 2021.

The Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine (BBIBP-CorV) is an inactivated vaccine made of virus particles grown in culture and lack disease-producing capability.

The Lancet published results on September 15, 2021, from a limited study that found the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine BBIBP-CorV was safe and well-tolerated at all tested dose levels in participants aged 3–17 years.

Separately, Thailand's health ministry plans to offer the Comirnaty (Pfizer-BioNTech) mRNA vaccine to older students aged 12-18 located in 29 provinces beginning in October 2021. First, however, the students' parents must give their pre-approval.

Previously, Thailand's National Vaccine Board approved a policy of procuring 150 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines by 2022.

To meet this goal, the Chulabhorn Royal College announced on September 14th it would procure and distribute 8 million doses of the SpikeVax Covid-19 Vaccine Moderna (100 mcg/dose) as a booster vaccine. The first shipments are expected in the first quarter of 2022 and will continue through the third quarter.

Thailand's COVID-19 pandemic dashboard, updated as of September 20th, is available at this link.