Fourth-dose booster injections roll out to the general public

“In January, there were the third-dose vaccination injections for people who had received AstraZeneca+AstraZeneca, Sinovac+AstraZeneca and Sinovac+Sinovac injections,” Dr Witita explained at a meeting of the Phuket Communicable Disease Committee at Phuket Provincial Hall on Tuesday (Feb 22).

“Also in January we conducted the fourth-dose vaccinations of medical personnel, front line personnel and at-risk people in the Group 608 category: elderly aged 60 and over and patients with any of the seven congenital diseases [chronic respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, chronic renal disease, stroke, obesity, cancer and diabetes], as well as women more than 12 weeks pregnant,” she said.

“This month [Feb], we started the fourth-dose vaccinations for the general public and children aged 5-11 years old,” she added.

The registration of children was mostly conducted via schools while the vaccination injections for children were being administered at the airport, Jungceylon shopping mall in Patong, the Saphan Hin Gymnasium and Central Floresta Phuket, Dr Witita Of the target 28,801 children 5-11 years old to be vaccinated, so far 5,663, or 19.7%, had received vaccination injections, she added

Dr Witita reminded people wanting to receive the third- and fourth-dose vaccinations to register through the PhuketMustWin website.

Of note, all the announcements by Phuket officials to inform the public of vaccination drives being held at various locations across the island continue to be in Thai-language only, despite more than a year of rolling out vaccination injections.

Any non-Thai-speaking person not constantly monitoring the government public-relations channels for the Thai-language only updates on where and when specific vaccines will be administered to a limited number of people at each event, must constantly return to the PhuketMustWin website to confirm their status as eligible to receive a third- or fourth-dose booster injection.

The PhuketMustWin website does feature English language to assist foreigners in registering to be vaccinated with booster doses. As such it is the only source of any information in English for non-Thai-speaking foreigners regarding which vaccination injections they are eligible for, and how such foreigners can receive a vaccination injection.

English-speaking foreigners can register to receive third- and fourth-dose vaccination injections through the section “Booster-dose vaccination appointment for foreigners”.

The website still features the registration sections “First-dose vaccination appointment for foreigners” and “Vaccination registration for non-work-permit foreigners”.

Expats and other foreigners who register to receive booster injections are informed to bring with them to their vaccination appointments the following documents:

• Original passport, visa and original work permit
• A copy of passport, visa and a copy of work permit
• The copy of vaccine certificate with ID number (13 digits)
• Patient form
• Vaccination consent form (which can be downloaded from the website)
• Personal drinking water and a pen
• Phone to show your appointment confirmation from the PhuketMustWin website

People are asked to wear a short sleeve shirt or a sleeveless shirt to make the vaccination process as quick as possible.

According to the latest Phuket Provincial Public Health Office (PPHO) update on the mass vaccination campaign, of the target population of 539,183 to be vaccinated, 493,481 (91.52%) have received their first vaccination injection, and 470,394 people (87.24%) have received two vaccination injections.

So far 316,260 people (58.66%) have received a third-dose “booster” jab, and 107,041 people (33.85%) have received a fourth-dose vaccination injection.