Thailand will rely on Covid-19 vaccines from China ’s Sinovac Biotech to kick off an inoculation drive that aims to cover about two-thirds of the nation’s eligible population by the end of this year, potentially paving the way for a full reopening of its tourism industry. The Thai drug regulator is expected to approve Sinovac’s shots for emergency use parallel to the arrival of the first shipment of 200,000 doses later this month, Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Monday. But the bulk of the nation’s vaccine needs will be met from AstraZeneca’s shots to be locally produced by a Thai drug maker, he said. Thai authorities were earlier betting on the delivery of 50,000 AstraZeneca vaccine shots to begin inoculation of its frontline health workers from February 14, but the British-Swedish firm’s dispute with the European Union has delayed supplies to the Southeast Asian nation. The Bank of Thailand has said the pace of economic recovery this year hinges on the success of a vaccine roll-out and the return of foreign tourists, and Anutin said economic growth will rebound once the health care concerns are addressed. “The big plan is to use AstraZeneca vaccines to distribute to everyone in Thailand, starting from June onwards,” Anutin said in an interview on Monday. “It’ll take until the end of the year to complete 63 million doses. The coverage will be beyond 60 per cent to 65 per cent of the population,” excluding those below 18 and pregnant women, he said. Siam Bioscience, which has an agreement with AstraZeneca to manufacture its vaccine locally, will be able to supply at least 10 million doses a month to the government’s vaccination programme, Anutin said. The initial output from Siam Bioscience will be exclusively available to Thailand and the AstraZeneca vaccine remains “our preferred option to secure and guarantee on-time delivery”, he said. Siam Bioscience’s plant has a production capacity of up to 200 million doses per year and the firm, with links to the Thai monarchy, plans to export to countries in the Southeast Asia. “What we have ordered hasn’t even reached half of Siam Bioscience’s capacity,” Anutin said. “What we have right now and the potential amount of vaccines that should come in the later stages will easily cover the required portion of the population for herd immunity.” Covid-19: China approves Sinovac vaccine for general public use The minister defended the government’s strategy of not placing orders with multiple vaccine developers as done by countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia or the Philippines, saying Thailand with its low number of infections and status as a middle-income country was not a priority for most suppliers and the nation was dealing with a “sellers’ market”. The government has approved plans to procure a total of 63 million doses and is open to talks with other suppliers for more shots, Anutin said. “My job as health minister is to make sure that the country is safe and people’s well-being are being taken care of,” Anutin said. “When everyone is safe, economic growth will follow. The second part cannot happen without the first.” India has ‘no concerns’ over AstraZeneca vaccine India has ordered 10 million more doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine from the Serum Institute of India (SII) and 4.5 million more of a home-grown one from Bharat Biotech, company representatives said. Just the two shots have been used in what India calls the world’s biggest immunisation programme to cover 300 million people by August, starting with health care and other workers to reach the elderly and those with existing conditions by March. Government official Vinod Kumar Paul told a news conference on Tuesday that India currently has no concern over the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine. SII, the world’s biggest vaccine maker, had supplied 11 million doses for the inoculation campaign, which has covered 6.3 million frontline workers since it began on January 16. ‘To heck with Covid’: Asian weddings back on, in sickness and in health “The second order is already in place, it’s for 10 million doses,” an SII spokesman said, adding that the figure was part of the 100 million doses the company has agreed to sell to the government for 200 rupees (US$2.74) each. Bharat Biotech, which developed its vaccine with the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research, has supplied 5.5 million doses. A Bharat Biotech spokeswoman said it was selling 4.5 million more. India’s infections rose 9,110 in the last 24 hours to stand at 10.85 million, the world’s highest tally after the United States, though they have fallen sharply from a mid-September peak of nearly 100,000. The health ministry said a daily toll of less than 100 deaths over the last four days took the total to more than 155,000. South Korea PM pleads for Covid-19 compliance ahead of Lunar New Year South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun on Tuesday called on restaurant and other business owners in the greater Seoul area to cooperate with social distancing rules to head off a spread of Covid-19 during the Lunar New Year holiday. The country has been trying clamp down the number of infections by imposing strident social distancing measures, including a ban on indoor restaurant dining after 9pm, though it eased that curfew on more than half a million restaurants and other businesses outside the capital Seoul after a backlash. Business owners and self-employed people in Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and port city of Incheon, home to over 25 million, have strongly criticised the government for unfair treatment, prompting some businesses to open their stores in protest. “I understand the frustration, but we have made the decision after comprehensive consideration of social acceptance and different opinions,” Chung told an government meeting. The Lunar New Year holiday starts on February 11, and tens of millions of Koreans usually travel across the country to family gatherings. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 303 daily new coronavirus cases as of Monday, bringing total infections to 81,487, with a death toll of 1,482. The KDCA held a Covid-19 vaccination dry run focused on the handling of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine at the National Medical Centre in Seoul on Tuesday, as the country gears up to kick off inoculation later this month. The KDCA said it would conduct similar exercises with other brands of vaccines it has secured, including Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. Singapore see people travelling this year amid vaccine roll-out Countries could relax border controls and allow more travel if there’s a set of standards for vaccine certification that immigration authorities can use to help determine entry policies, Singapore Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung said. “That is really the light at the end of the long tunnel,” Ong said in an interview on Monday. “With vaccination and vaccination certification, we can start to relax some border measures to allow some travel to start happening within the course of this year.” Ong said he “wasn’t holding his breath” for a V-shaped recovery in aviation, but was hopeful that some travel corridors with other countries could open this year as more people are vaccinated and regions become safe or achieve herd immunity. Rather than a full recovery, this year will be about finding “a new norm” that allows travel to happen, he said. Singapore’s efforts to open its borders have stalled, with a plan to allow business travellers to avoid quarantine and stay in a dedicated facility near the airport still not materialising, The Business Times reported on Monday. The Connect@Singapore pilot programme for businesspeople and so-called high-economic value travellers was set to get going in January, yet the tourism board has not selected operators for the facilities where the visitors would stay. Singapore health care worker wrongly given five doses of Pfizer vaccine The tourism and service sectors are crucial cogs in Singapore’s economy. The city state has been trying to reopen borders by establishing green lanes and special travel arrangements with countries where the virus is largely under control, such as New Zealand and Australia. It suspended reciprocal green lane arrangements with Germany, Malaysia and South Korea for three months starting February 1, citing the rise in global virus cases. The delay of the bubble plan – where visitors could enter without quarantine for 14 days provided they stay in a facility near Changi Airport and undergo regular testing – follows the postponement of the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering, which Singapore was set to host in May. A planned corridor with Hong Kong was also shelved in November after a jump in coronavirus cases in that city. Ong said the government is working on the basis that it can contain and manage risk so the World Economic Forum meeting can proceed in August without participants having to undergo 14-day quarantine. Malaysia eases some virus curbs after costly lockdown Malaysia is set to further ease its movement restrictions beginning on Wednesday after a month-long lockdown that cost the country billions of ringgit. Businesses in the retail sector, including clothes stores, cosmetic stores and antique shops may resume operations, Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said in a televised address on Tuesday. Restaurants will be allowed to accept dine-in patrons, while the creative industry may also reopen, he added. Malaysia imposed a state of emergency and renewed movement restrictions last month as it grapples with a wave of new infections that has stretched its health care system to breaking point. The lockdown has cost the economy an estimated 700 million ringgit (US$173 million) daily, prompting the government to estimate that this year’s gross domestic product is likely to be at the lower end of its 6.5 -7.5 per cent forecast range. Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said last week that his administration is trying to strike a balance that will protect lives while ensuring that economic activity can continue. The country registered record-high daily infections each week in January, and reported 24 deaths linked to coronavirus on Monday, an all-time high.