PPAO President Rewat Areerob announced the news yesterday (Aug 24).
“Right now, about 50,000-60,000 people who are registered in Phuket have not received any vaccinations,” Mr Rewat pointed out.
“The PPAO would like to help staff of the three main government hospitals ‒ Vachira Phuket, Thalang and Patong ‒ so we will be open for walk-in vaccinations at the Phuket Merlin Hotel on the five days [Sept 1-5], from 8:30am to 4pm,” he said.
“The vaccination to be provided is Sinovac as the first dose and AstraZeneca as the second dose, in line with the order issued by the Ministry of Public Health,” he said.
“For over 300 of elderly, bedridden patients, disableb people who cannot come to be vaccinated, we will send our health officers to administer the vaccine at your home in Sept and Oct,” he added.
Mr Rewat yesterday also explained the rescheduling of appointments of people who were to receive their second vaccination injection of AstraZeneca at the Phuket Merlin Hotel in Phuket Town (see map below) on Aug 25-29.
“Our health officers and staff were called to help conduct proactive screening in various areas [across the island],” Mr Rewat said.
“We were afraid that people coming to receive the vaccinations may not be safe from officers returning from COVID risk areas, so we ordered officers and staff to observe 14 days’ quarantine. The vaccination appointments have been postponed to Sept 1-5,” he said.
MODERNA
Registration for five prioritized groups of people to be vaccinated for COVID-19 with the Moderna vaccine will open next Wednesday (Sept 1), Mr Rewat also confirmed.
Phuket will receive 5,060 doses of Moderna vaccine from the national Red Cross, which can vaccinate only 2,530 people, Mr Rewat said, repeating his announcement last Wednesday (Aug 18).
The groups of people to receive the Moderna vaccine as a priority are:
- Bedridden patients, disabled people, pregnant women
- Elders who are more than 70 years old
- Doctors and medical staff who work in rural areas
- Teachers in kindergartens, nurseries and schools
- Officials who must come in close contact with infected and high-risk contacts, and members of the general public who are unable to be vaccinated under the current state-vaccination campaign
“We will open the registration for the groups on Sept 1-15 only, and after that we will submit the name list to the Red Cross to approve. If we do not have enough people register to receive the vaccine doses provided, we will open the registration for people who have health or medical conditions to receive the vaccine,” Mr Rewat said.
“We need to present the list of names of the people in the five groups to the Red Cross before we receive the vaccine. The vaccine doses will come in October, and we will start administering injections in November,” he said.