Thailand’s vaccine ambitions. Some math needs to be done here. As of today, some 32.7 million first doses have been given to Thais. To get to 50% requires only a few million more doses. On the other hand, the second doses have amounted to just over 20 million in Thailand. As far as “fully vaccinated” goes, the government needs to vaccinate some 15 million more Thais (second jab) to reach the targeted 50% coverage. PBS World

Thailand's vaccine ambitions

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October 1, 2021: The Prayut government hopes to vaccinate 50% of the population by the end of this month, and achieve even higher percentages in selective areas.

That's what was announced today amid the good news of increasing vaccine supplies and bad, lingering news of the possibility that the coronavirus is working tirelessly to outsmart all vaccines being used at the moment.

Apisamai Srirangsan, assistant spokesperson on the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration, said each Thai province's vaccination should cover 50% of its population at the end of October. That means at least half of the entire Thai population would have been vaccinated within four weeks, whereas it took more than half a year to reach just over 40% (first doses only).

Some math needs to be done here. As of today, some 32.7 million first doses have been given to Thais. To get to 50% requires only a few million more doses. On the other hand, the second doses have amounted to just over 20 million in Thailand. As far as "fully vaccinated" goes, the government needs to vaccinate some 15 million more Thais (second jab) to reach the targeted 50% coverage.

To get 50% of Thais to be fully vaccinated, it means the first dose needs to reach 50% first, which is currently not the case. Therefore, if the government wants 50% of Thais to be fully vaccinated, it will require a few million more first doses plus some 15 million more second doses.

Supplies do not seem to be a big problem lately, and neither does the capability to administer a large amount of doses daily. But fears have been persistent among many international health experts that a variant might emerge to render current vaccine useless. The theory about this new, invincible variant, however, is highly dependent on the number of "hosts" of the current variants. The higher the number of hosts, the higher the chances for meaningful mutations.

Apisamai said at least one district in each Thai province would get a 70% vaccine coverage, whereas any district earmarked for economic pioneering push would get 80%.