Coronavirus: Thailand, Philippines approve Sinovac jabs for emergency use; Air NZ to trial digital ‘vaccination passports’
- Thailand authorised the use of the Chinese-made Sinovac shot on Monday, with its neighbour also giving the jab the green light
- Elsewhere, Air New Zealand will trial a digital health certificate that can be securely shared with airlines
Thailand’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday gave emergency use authorisation for Sinovac Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine, paving the way for the country’s first coronavirus inoculations.
Thailand’s authorisation came just days before it is set to receive the first 200,000 of 2 million doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac, its first batch of Covid-19 vaccines, which will be given primarily to health workers.
“The FDA has registered Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine for conditional emergency use, effective February 22,” said FDA deputy secretary-general Surachok Tangwiwat.
Thailand has recorded just 25,504 coronavirus cases in total, more than four-fifths of those since December, with 89 deaths overall.
The government has ordered 26 million coronavirus vaccine doses from AstraZeneca, and reserved a further 35 million doses from the company.
Astrazeneca has authorised a Thai firm to manufacture the vaccine and it will be used for the country’s mass vaccination campaign from June.