BANGKOK – Thailand’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved the emergency use of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.
In a statement, FDA secretary-general Dr Paisarn Dunkum said the Pfizer-BioNTech is the sixth Covid-19 vaccine approved in the kingdom.
Earlier this month, Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said Thailand has signed a purchase order for 20 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine scheduled to be delivered this year.
Meanwhile, director of the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration’s (CCSA) operations centre Gen Nattaphon Narkphanit said the proposal to lockdown Bangkok for a week amid surge in Covid-19 cases has not been finalised, citing concerns over economic impacts of the measure.
Nattaphon. who is also the secretary-general of the National Security Council (NSC), said “bubble and seal” approach remain in use in the capital, the epicentre of the latest outbreak.
“We will discuss stricter measures to be imposed under ‘bubble and seal’ approach,” he was quoted saying by Thai PBS.
Yesterday, chief of the respiratory disease and tuberculosis division of the Faculty of Medicine at Siriraj Hospital Assoc Prof Dr Nitipatana Chierakul said lockdown in Bangkok is the “best answer” to contain the outbreak in the capital that is running out of hospital beds.
Meanwhile, Thailand recorded 4,108 new Covid-19 cases and 31 fatalities bringing the total infections in the kingdom to 232,647 and 1,775 deaths.
Of the new cases, 4,095 were local transmission and 14 imported cases.
CCSA assistant spokesperson Dr Apisamai Srirangsan said Bangkok topped the list with the highest number of cases at 1,359 and 28 fatalities.
“There are 99 clusters detected in Bangkok in 42 districts,” she said at Covid-19 daily briefing here today.
Dr Apisamai said Pathum Thani had a new cluster of 39 cases including 33 young children aged between 3-years-old to 6-years-old, at Rangsit Home for Babies in Thanyaburi district.
“The index case was a driver,” she said. – Bernama, June 24, 2021
