Phuket’s allocation of vaccines through the national mass-vaccination campaign had been allocated early, the Phuket office of the Public Relations Department (PR Phuket) explained in a post online today (Apr 16).
The early delivery means that people in Phuket who received their first vaccination from Apr 1-10 will be able to receive their second injection from Apr 22-30, the notice said.
Although the four “remote site” vaccination centres were shut down last week as the COVID infections started spreading across the island, including at the vaccine centres themselves, the PR Phuket notice today also explained that people who are to receive their second vaccination injection from next week will need to return to the same venue where the recipient received their first injection.
People were asked to check the official vaccination registration website www.ภูเก็ตต้องชนะ.com for confirmation of where and when to receive their second injection.
The notice today came as the Phuket office of the Ministry of Interior also posted on its official COIVD-19 information Facebook page, ’Phuket Anti-COVID19’, a warning of “Fake News” circulating, also announcing that the mass vaccinations will resume Apr 22-30.
However, the “Fake News” report claims that people will be vaccinated in the same order, day for day, as they received their first injection. That has not yet been confirmed by official sources.
The “Fake News” warning instructed people to confirm their second-injection appointment through the www.ภูเก็ตต้องชนะ.com website only.
The impending arrival of more vaccine doses for Phuket ‒ at this stage all of the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine ‘CoronaVac’ ‒ follows Dr Chalermpong Sakontapol, Director of Vachira Phuket Hospital, the main government hospital on the island, on Wednesday repeating that more vaccine doses were on their way to resume the mass-vaccination efforts in the hope of reopening the island to international tourists on July 1.
“I expect that this month we will receive 100,000 more doses of the Sinovac vaccine, which will be provided as the second jab for the first 100,000 people vaccinated,” he said.
“In May, we will receive 200,000 doses of Sinovac for the second 100,000 people. In June, we will receive 200,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine for the third 100,000 people,” he added.
“For now, we have about 6,000 doses in store, which will be provided to monks and those who are sensitive with chronic diseases,” he noted.
“More vaccine doses will come later for us to vaccinate 70% of the people on the island,” Dr Chalermpong added.