Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute said yesterday inoculations with the AstraZeneca vaccine will proceed as scheduled in June, after having announced earlier that it will postpone giving the second dose of AstraZeneca jabs to July.
The institute's director, Kitpong Sunchatawirul, said yesterday its earlier announcement was based on a misunderstanding, and people who have registered for a vaccine in June will receive their jabs on their appointment date.
When asked if the institute plans to use the AstraZeneca or Sinovac vaccine in its jab drive, the director said the decision will be made by Nonthaburi's provincial authorities.
On concerns about the national communicable diseases committee's decision to allow individuals over the age of 60 to be inoculated with the Sinovac vaccine, Dr Kitpong said the institute has vaccinated its doctors -- many of whom were above 60 years of age -- with the jabs without any problems.
Doubts around the safety of the Sinovac jabs for the elderly emerged at the start of the pandemic, when there wasn't enough empirical data to arrive at a conclusion about the matter. However, the government said, the vaccine has now been proven to be safe for older people.
Separately, Deputy Public Health Minister Sathit Pitutecha said yesterday he hasn't received any information about possible delays in the delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is expected to be the main jab in the national rollout.
He said the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation is responsible for overseeing the delivery process, before adding the Public Health Ministry and other state agencies will meet later today to set the delivery date.
Rungrueng Kitphati, spokesman for the Public Health Ministry, said AstraZeneca will ship its vaccines to Thailand within June, but not on June 1.
"The company is aware of the government's mass vaccination campaign and is obligated to comply with the vaccine purchase contract," he said, adding the government has devised a contingency plan for every situation.
Meanwhile, Supakit Sirilak, director-general of the Department of Medical Sciences, said the department has approved all nine batches of the domestically-produced AstraZeneca vaccine.
After the vaccines are checked by Thai authorities, AstraZeneca will conduct a final check before the vaccine can be distributed to the public.
Five more batches produced by Siam Bioscience, contracted by AstraZeneca to produce the vaccine locally, were sent to the department for quality checks on Tuesday.
Checks usually take three days to complete, he said.