Thailand gives green light to Sinovac, AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine cocktail

Thailand is allowing doctors to mix the Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines in a bid to increase protection against highly transmissive coronavirus variants.

Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Monday afternoon that health officials have given the green light to inoculating the population with a dose of the Sinovac vaccine followed by a dose of AstraZeneca’s in hopes that it would boost their immunity against the infectious Delta variant currently spreading in Thailand.

Hospitals can proceed with such inoculations on medical workers immediately, Anutin said. The two doses must be administered three or four weeks apart.

Previously, more than 677,000 Thai medical workers received two doses of the China-made Sinovac vaccine, some of whom – at least 618 people – continued to contract the coronavirus. A vaccinated 30-year-old nurse died from COVID-19 on the…