Thai businesses frustrated over limited choice of vaccines, slow pace of rollout

Business and tourism representatives are expressing growing anger over the slow pace of Thailand’s vaccine rollout and the limited number of vaccines on offer. Their frustration comes as other countries around the world begin to see encouraging results from their vaccination efforts. And, while the latest rise in Covid-19 infections can be partly attributed to the presence of the so-called UK variant, businesses say the biggest factor is the government’s failure to vaccinate people sooner.

The Bangkok Post reports that, by April 7, only 323,989 vaccine doses had been administered in Thailand. That equates to half a dose per 100 people. A University of Oxford project – Our World in Data – shows that only 0.4% of the Thai population has been vaccinated so far.

Thailand is in 8th position among the ASEAN nations, behind Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Cambodia, Malaysia,…