Dr Chalermpong did not specify which vaccine was requested to provide the booster jabs.
“We have already filed a request to the central government for 400,000 doses as the third dose for the general public, and another 70,000 vaccine doses specifically for people who are older than 60 years old and those who have [one of the seven recognised] chronic diseases,” Dr Chalermpong said on Monday (Aug 23).
“The doses of vaccine will be used to boost our people’s immunity and will help the Phuket Sandbox continue as the role model under the goal to open the country [to tourism] in October,” he said.
“For the current vaccination campaign, we have been continuing to provide vaccination injections, especially to people who are older than 60, those with the seven chronic diseases, and women who are more than 12 weeks pregnant, as these groups of people are considered as at risk of infection and developing severe symptoms,” Dr Chalermpong said.
“We are providing Sinovac as the first dose and AstraZeneca as the second dose for them, but elders will receive two AstraZeneca doses for sure,” he said.
“Right now, our number of new infected cases has been increasing every day because we have been conducting proactive screening in communities across the island. Most of the new cases are ‘Green’ patients who are already fully vaccinated with two doses of Sinovac. They do not have any symptoms, or have only light symptoms just like having a normal cold,” he said.
“They are taken to the field hospitals and the COVID-19 Care Centers, which are now being set up in every subdistrict [on the island]. Our health officers and staff have closely checked their symptoms while they are in quarantine at the venues,” he continued.
“I believe that we will be able to control and decrease the number of new infected cases soon, as we have good cooperation from local administrations for setting up the COVID Care Centers and from the people themselves who are being placed in quarantine,” Dr Chaerlmpong concluded.