Thailand to extend dose gap for AstraZeneca vaccine to 16 weeks

Thailand will extend the gap between the first and second doses of AstraZeneca’s (AZN.L) COVID-19 vaccine to 16 weeks, in an effort to inoculate more people faster, a senior health official said on Monday.

The plan follows a similar decision by Spain to stretch the gap between two AstraZeneca doses to 16 weeks, which is beyond the 12 weeks maximum interval approved by the European Medicines Agency. A 16-week interval has not been tested in human trials.

Thailand’s change, from a 10-week gap previously, comes ahead of the planned start of a mass immunisation campaign from June, for which AstraZeneca’s vaccine will be the main one used.

“This is to increase the number of people who get vaccinated,” Kiattiphum Wongrajit, permanent…