DPM confirms Thais will start receiving vaccinations in June at a rate of 5 million doses a month
BANGKOK (NNT) - The government has confirmed that Thai people will begin receiving COVID-19 vaccinations in June at a rate of 5 million doses a month using shots from Siam Bioessence, which was transfered production technology from AstraZeneca and is poised to be a production base for ASEAN.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Health Anutin Chanvirakul, speaking at the "Producing a COVID Vaccine to Turn Around the Thai Economy" seminar, remarked that anti COVID-19 vaccinations will return Thailand to a state of normalcy and explained there is a clear inoculation plan despite concerns the EU is restricting exports and could hinder Thai orders from AstraZeneca.
He voiced an assurance that 26 million doses resulting from a technology transfer between AstraZeneca and Siam Bioessence would be available in June, adding Thailand is slated to become a production hub in ASEAN.
The DPM urged confidence in the government's plan to provide 5 million doses a month at no cost to the public.
The DPM went on to note Thailand's pandemic situation has been light compared to other countries but said the government was applying full control measures, pointing out the new wave of infection was no one in the country's fault but was due to outsiders bringing in the virus, requiring strict enforcement of the law.
The education system in Thailand has failed to equip its students with crucial skills for the 21st century job market such as critical thinking, problem-solving and foreign language proficiency.
Its educational culture is to blame, according to Crimson Education Thailand, a consulting company that helps Thai students win entry to the world's elite universities.
Sujaree Xu, managing director of Crimson Education Thailand, criticised the outdated curriculum and educational culture in Thailand, saying they do not focus on the development of soft skills, such as extracurricular activities and promotion of independent thinking.
Ms Sujaree said radical change is needed in how Thai students are educated, which means tackling the root of the problem in Thai education — the social norms of Thai culture.
"The educational system tends to focus heavily on content and not necessarily the thought process, so true understanding is often not present," Ms Sujaree said.
"Thai education does not encourage critical thinking or inquisitive learning so students struggle to apply knowledge or understanding at a fundamental level."
Consequently, Thai students are often ill-equipped to enter debates or think analytically when competing on the global stage, as Thai students are rarely encouraged to have their own free thought or question what they have been told.
"So, Thai students need to accept learning as an acquisition of skills, or rather an ability to learn, analyse and think critically, rather than see learning as merely data or content acquisition," Ms Sujaree said.
As a result, Ms Sujaree said Thai parents increasingly understand that if they want their children to be able to compete in workforce's in other countries, they might need to send their kids to study in international programmes, international universities in Thailand or even overseas universities as foreign degrees remain an excellent calling card with employers. – The Bangkok Post
The number of people aged 60 and over in Thailand now stands at about eight million
#Thailand is gearing up for a big push to escape the middle-income trap. But existing demographic imbalances will seriously affect its ability to deliver on its current economic development plans.
In 2011, Thailand became an upper-middle- income economy. With average income now at $5,640, Thailand is facing slow economic growth, a loss of competitive edge, and high levels of economic inequality.
Addressing these issues sits at the heart of the present government's social and economic development plan and the Thailand 4.0 goal announced last year.
Both place emphasis on technology and innovation, transport infrastructure upgrades, and human resources improvements through education reform.
To reduce income disparities, strategies have been designed to increase growth in the north-east and north, where pockets of poverty remain.
However, for a decade, Thailand has been facing labour shortages and is on the fast track to becoming an aged society—this will affect the government's ability to realize the grand strategies to achieve high income status.
Along with China, the land of smiles currently has the highest share of elderly population among developing countries in the Asia- Pacific. The fertility rate is now 1.5, the second lowest in South-East Asia.
The World Bank estimates that by 2040, 42% of Thais will be over 65 years old. An impact of the low birth rate is a decline in unemployment rates, which has continued since 2007.
Lack of unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled labour is prevalent, especially in manufacturing and the service sectors.
A shrinking working-age population reduces growth and lowers the state's capacity to provide welfare to the dependent young and elderly.
Given that Thailand is poorer than most aging societies, the issue is of grave concern.
Its aging society is not new but Thailand is still at the nascent stage of addressing it. The department of older persons was formed in 2015 to provide welfare to the elderly, promote their rights and develop their capacities.
But current plans are still limited to increasing stipends, which are still very meagre for the elderly poor—from $18 to between $35 and $44, provision of skills training and job placement services and incentives to private employers to extend the retirement age.
None of this has yet been implemented.
For three years, the office of the civil service commission has been pushing to change the retirement age from 60 to 65 years.
Yet the proposal has not been adopted. It is also still unclear how pension schemes for people with social security will change.
Pensions from this source are very limited and will not be enough to meet the cost of living in the next 30-40 years.
Plans to encourage fertility are absent. Increases in the income and educational attainments of women may lead to late or no marriage. Other factors also contribute.
The new generation now has high expectations of life, preferring to wait until they are ready financially and have reached career fulfilment before settling down and having children.
Early childcare can disrupt a woman's career progress. Unlike Singapore, daycare for children and education costs are not high.
The government is making progress in expanding child development centres across the country. But this has not led to an increase in the fertility rate.
For some decades, arranged marriages and traditional match-making have been replaced by romantic marriages.
But the rush of urban life does not leave time for people to meet potential partners.
Women don't actively look for partners, so findingdates online is not common. A study should be conducted on why people remain single or marry late.
As in Singapore, the government should try to promote romance and dating and employ tax and child subsidy incentives for married couples.
Fertility treatment subsidies may be provided for older couples with reproductive difficulties. These initiatives do not exist currently.
Immigration may be a solution for labour shortages, a decreased working-age population and low fertility rates.
The US and Europe have seen 47% and 70% increases, respectively, in the workforce from migrants who contribute taxes to support social welfare.
Thailand has over three million foreign migrants from neighbouring countries, mostly unskilled labour.
But the government has been struggling to solve issues related to human trafficking and undocumented migrant labourers.
A law passed recently even raises penalties for non-conforming employers, aggravating labour scarcity.
The laws make it very difficult for legal migrants to seek permanent residency which will allow their children, born in the country, to become Thai citizens.
The quota for each nationality to obtain permanent residency is limited to 100 per year. Also, the Thai people are still not very open to foreign immigration.
A sufficient workforce and demographic balance are crucial to the social and economic advancement of the country.
Without these, Thailand cannot achieve its goals. Tackling these problems is an urgent matter but requires long-term and creative plans.
Thai fisherman finds rare orange pearl worth $330K
It's rare enough to find a pearl in a shell, so to happen upon an extraordinary orange pearl — worth more than $330,000 — was like winning the lottery for one Thai fisherman.
Brothers Hatchai Niyomdecha, 37, and Worachat Niyomdecha, 35, were walking the shore of Nakhon Si Thammarat in the Gulf of Thailand on Jan. 27. when they spotted an abandoned buoy, dotted with shellfish, according to Viral Press.
The siblings plucked three snails from the apparatus with plans to have them for a snack. But what their father Bangmad Niyomdecha, 60, found while cleaning the shells was worth much more than fresh escargot.
The tangerine-hued pearl, which is about the width of a dime and weighs 7.68 grams, was found in the Melo melo sea snail, as opposed to typical oyster pearls.
These exceedingly rare pearls, formed in a gastropod native to Asian waters, can be found in shades from tan or brown to the more coveted orange color, and take many more years to form than standard pearls.
Brothers Hatchai Niyomdecha and Worachat Niyomdecha were walking along the ocean in Nakhon Si Thammarat when they spotted a buoy in the sand. – ViralPress
Hatchai, whose family hails from an impoverished fishing community, believes it may have been destiny that led him to the treasure.
"An old man in white with a long mustache told me to come to the beach so I can receive a gift. I think he led me to finding the pearl," he said of a dream he had just days before the discovery.
The pearl is about the width of a dime and weighs 7.68 grams. – ViralPress
"I want to sell the pearl for the highest price," he told Viral Press. "The money won't just change my life, it will change my destiny. My whole family will have better lives."
He was since approached by at least three buyers, two of whom low-balled the pearl's value.
The family, including wife Worachat Niyomdecha, 35, and their two sons, is negotiating with a buyer from China who is allegedly offering $10 million Baht (about $332,000) following a live appraisal, scheduled for later this month.
The pearl may go to a trader from China who is offering up to $10 million Baht.
NVI director Nakorn Premsri, left, joins Disease Control Department director-general Opas Kankawinphong, centre, and AstraZeneca Thailand president James Teak at a signing ceremony at Government House last November. (Government House photo)
The British/Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca will ship 150,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Thailand from a manufacturing plant based in Asia, rather than from Italy, in a bid to ensure no delivery delays, the government said on Thursday.
The announcement was relayed by Public Health Minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, who said AstraZeneca sent a letter on Wednesday explaining the steps it will take to avoid disruptions to vaccine deliveries to Thailand, following the European Union's decision to temporarily suspend vaccine exports from the bloc.
That said, the minister stopped short of confirming the exact date when the vaccines are due to arrive in the country.
The letter, Mr Anutin said, also urged the government to approve the licences and permits required to import the vaccines, as they will now come from Asia rather than Europe.
This is important as AstraZeneca was only approved by the Thai Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) to import Covid-19 vaccines from its manufacturing facilities in Europe.
Some 50,000 doses of the vaccines will be on their way to Thailand soon under this licence -- however, the 150,000 doses which are scheduled to arrive in March and April will now be produced in Asia, as the EU moved to protect its own vaccine supplies by halting exports outside the region.
"We have put our best efforts in to secure vaccines, and we are expecting good news to come shortly," Mr Anutin said.
"If we get it, it will allow us to test our vaccine distribution network.
"Anyway, even if we don't get it, it won't have an impact on our plan to give 26 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Thais in June," he said, adding the need for vaccines isn't as urgent as before, as the outbreak in Samut Sakhon has been brought largely under control.
The Public Health Ministry has secured an additional 35 million doses from AstraZeneca, which means the government now has 61 million doses in total, enough to inoculate just over 30 million Thais as planned, Mr Anutin said.
While Siam Bioscience is expected to eventually produce AstraZeneca's vaccine locally under a technology-transfer agreement, Mr Anutin said it is AstraZeneca's responsibility to ensure Thailand gets the vaccines it had bought, regardless of where they were produced.
"We have signed a contract with AstraZeneca for at least 61 million doses, not with Siam Bioscience. If Siam Bioscience's plant can't produce the vaccine, it means nothing to us. This is because the purchase agreement clearly stated that AstraZeneca will provide the vaccine, not Siam Bioscience," he stressed.
Thailand to get vaccine from Asia after EU export control, minister Anutin says
FILE PHOTO: Vials labelled "COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccine" are placed on dry ice in this illustration taken, December 4, 2020. Picture taken December 4, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand will import the first doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine from Asia after Europe enforced export controls, the country's health minister said on Thursday.
The European Union (EU) last week set restrictions on the export of vaccines from the bloc through to March to ensure it will secure the supplies it had bought in advance, including shots from AstraZeneca Plc.
Thailand will still import the first 50,000 of 150,000 "early doses" of the AstraZeneca vaccine later this month, just not from Europe as previously planned, said Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul.
"The producer will source the vaccine from another supply chain outside of the EU," minister of public health Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters.
"It will be from somewhere in Asia," he said without elaborating because he said otherwise there was a risk of another intervention to safeguard supplies.
South Korea and India are among the countries in Asia currently producing the AstraZeneca vaccine.
China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd will also deliver the first 200,000 of two million doses of its vaccine that Thailand had ordered around the end of February, Anutin added.
Thailand's vaccine strategy relies mostly on AstraZeneca vaccines being produced by local manufacturer Siam Bioscience.
The 26 million doses to be produced by the firm are set to be used in inoculations starting in June. Thailand plans to inoculate people with five million doses every month from that point, Anutin said.
Thailand had ordered 35 million more vaccine doses from AstraZeneca, but Anutin said on Thursday a contract for the volume had not been signed.
Earlier on Thursday, Thailand reported 809 new coronavirus cases and no additional deaths, its COVID-19 taskforce said.
The new infections took the overall total to 22,058, with fatalities remaining at 79.
(Reporting by Patpicha Tanakasempipat and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Ed Davies)
Ministry permanent secretary Dr Kiattaphum Wongrajit
By The Nation
The Public Health Ministry has stepped up negotiations with British vaccine company AstraZeneca to import the first lot of its anti-Covid-19 vaccines this month and is also asking the Thai Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to consider importing and registering China's Sinovac vaccine faster.
Ministry permanent secretary Dr Kiattaphum Wongrajit said on Wednesday that Thailand aimed to procure the first lot of 50,000 AstraZeneca vaccines by February 14 despite the European Union limiting exports amid delivery disputes and a shortage of doses.
He said there was an agreement before the problem arose but now the Thai government is providing information to the EU for the purchase of the vaccines.
The ministry expects the EU to consider Thailand's case and allow the first lot of vaccines to be exported upon agreement, before the kingdom goes in for bulk vaccine imports in June.
In addition, the FDA is now studying laws for the "emergency" import of Sinovac, manufactured by the Biotech company. Thailand expects to import this vaccine too this month.
Thai FDA said Johnson & Johnson has applied to register its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine.
BANGKOK – According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Johnson & Johnson is seeking to register its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine in Thailand.
Dr Surachoke Tangwiwat, deputy secretary-general of the FDA said the company has applied to register their vaccine with the FDA but some documents were missing.
The company is required to have the relevant papers and file them within 30 days, he said.
In the meantime, the FDA is examining the filed papers that have been submitted, Dr Surachoke said, adding that no other company has recently applied to register their coronavirus vaccine.
The FDA last week revealed that it approved the registration of AstraZeneca Co's vaccine after the firm submitted nearly 10,000 pages of documents in December.
As for the registration of China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, Dr Surachoke said although it has yet to be registered for use in China, the jab could be allowed to be used in Thailand if the FDA determines it is safe and effective. (NNT)
King Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida at an event in November 2020. Instagram / thairoyalfamily
The absence of Thailand's Queen Suthida from public engagements has roused some anxiety within the country, where the 42-year-old has her own supporters among diehard royalists.
Information about the Thai monarchy is heavily sanitised by the country's lèse-majesté law, which punishes criticism of the royal family with up to 15 years in prison.
As a result, most Thais rely on the royal news broadcast, which runs on television every night, to keep up with the monarchy's activities – but Suthida has not been mentioned on it since late December.
Neither has the palace moved to discredit rumours swirling online that Suthida might suffer the same fate as King Maha Vajiralongkorn's three former wives, who were either forced into exile or publicly humiliated.
These developments come as Thailand's pro-democracy movement, emboldened by the popular support of internet-savvy millennials, has vowed to continue campaigning for reform of the monarchy and revocation of the royal defamation law, which they view as a political tool to silence dissent.
Since the protests took off last July, the Thai monarchy's place in the public consciousness has changed.
Many young Thais no longer address Vajiralongkorn, 68,with a special vocabulary or praise his development projects, as his father King Bhumibol Adulyadej was honoured during his 70-year reign until his death in 2016.
Critics of the monarchy, including Scottish journalist Andrew MacGregor Marshall and Kyoto University scholar and former Thai diplomat Pavin Chachavalpongpun, have noted Queen Suthida's absence and how its timing has coincided with the king's increasing public appearances with his consort Sineenat.
Unofficial YouTube channels focusing on news about the Thai royals have discussed Suthida's "disappearance", with their clips receiving more than 2 million views within days of being uploaded.
Secrets and suspicions
Suthida's last public appearance was on Dec 28, when she and the king presided over an event commemorating the 18th-century Thai King Taksin in Bangkok.
The event was held just days after Vajiralongkorn completed a weeklong tour of the provinces with Sineenat, his first official public appearance with the consort he had sacked in October 2019 before pardoning her in August last year .
Since the king's October return from Germany , where he has stayed for months at a time over the years, Suthida has been at his side at mostly official events in the Thai capital, as well as royal walkabouts the palace organised amid the pro-democracy protests demanding the curbing of his authority.
The trip with Sineenat took the public by surprise, as no Thai monarch has flaunted their consort so publicly.
It also invited criticism even from the royalists who have staunchly defended Vajiralongkorn against allegations he has abused his political and financial influence.
MacGregor Marshall said according to senior palace aides, there was "widespread despair in royal circles about the chaos caused by the king's personal life".
However, he said it was not unusual for Vajiralongkorn and Suthida to spend time apart, just as they had in recent years.
"For several years, Vajiralongkorn has lived at Grand Hotel Sonnenbichl in Bavaria, with Sineenat and the rest of his harem, while Suthida lived at Hotel Waldegg in the Swiss town of Engelberg," MacGregor Marshall said.
"The king and queen rarely saw each other except when they had to go to Thailand for royal duties, and these visits are kept very short, usually less than 24 hours."
Pavin, the former diplomat, pointed to another possible reason for Suthida's absence.
He and MacGregor Marshall had received more than 1,400 intimate photos of Sineenat last year, he said, and this was seen as a bid to sabotage her return as the royal consort.
According to Pavin, Suthida's loyalists might be connected to the leaked photos, and her current absence could be the consequence of that sabotage attempt.
"That is the most likely allegation against her and could be the reason for her disappearance," Pavin said.
"There is strong belief in the public that she was behind the leaking of Sineenat's private nude photos. Since Sineenat is now a favourite, she could have taken revenge against Suthida."
A handout photo. Official photographs issued this month of Sineenat taking part in a royal-sponsored prison project. – PHOTO: South China Morning Post
Thailand's second queen?
In Suthida's absence, Sineenat has taken up some public roles and assignments that would previously have been in the queen's wheelhouse.
The consort was this month appointed as deputy adviser to a royal-sponsored prison project, one that Suthida formerly co-advised with the king after Sineenat was stripped of her titles in late 2019.
This time, Suthida's name was taken off the project, going by an announcement in the royal gazette, which came soon after the palace released pictures of the king and Sineenat taking part in an agricultural project in the prison.
A New Year card featuring photos of her and the king was also issued, while their most recent public appearance was to celebrate Sineenat's 36th birthday on Jan 26.
"It is evident that she is his favourite consort," Pavin said. "Imprisoning her and then releasing her, it cannot be more evident that Sineenat has got a hold of his heart."
King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his consort Seineenat at a celebration of her birthday on January 26. PHOTO: Twitter/spadeup404
But the appointment of Sineenat as second queen, as is rumoured, would mean more civil war within the palace, adding to the fragility of the centuries-old institution that the pro-democracy movement has already revealed.
MacGregor Marshall, citing "several well-placed palace sources", said Vajiralongkorn had originally planned to make Sineenat his second queen last week during her birthday, becoming like the monarchs of the past who had several wives.
"But it has been delayed amid intense opposition from the king's sister [Princess Maha Chakri] Sirindhorn and his daughters, [Princesses] Bajrakitiyabha and Sirivannavari, all of whom will go down one place in the royal ranking if Thailand gets a second queen. The sources say it is still likely to happen later this year, as the king seems determined."
Pavin of Kyoto University said anything could happen under the current king's reign.
"Vajiralongkorn has proven that title and status, no matter how high and prestigious, can be taken away from any of [the women in the royal family]. In some ways, it is an erosion of positions of the monarchy as an institution, since the queen is a part of the institution."
