Private firms may get vaccine import nod

A panel of advisers at the Public Health Ministry on Thursday suggested private companies be allowed to import another 15-20 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine by the end of this year.

Dr Sopon Mekthon, vice-minister at the ministry, said a panel of advisers to the public health minister had agreed that Thailand still needed more doses of Covid-19 vaccines, in addition to the planned 63 million doses, some of which have already arrived.

Thailand has a population of about 65 million. If about 15 million teenagers were subtracted from the sum, the number of those eligible for vaccines would be about 50 million, plus another five million foreign migrants, Dr Sopon said.

With a calculation based on 80% of the 55 million people, about 40 million would receive two jabs of vaccines each which would require about 80 million doses, he said.

Apart from the planned 63 million…