Thailand grants Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine emergency authorization

Thailand’s health minister has announced that the country has granted emergency authorization for the use of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid vaccine, making it the third jab approved there, after the AstraZeneca and Sinovac doses.

The approval comes weeks after Thailand got its vaccination program under way, on March 1, with Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and frontline workers being some of the first in the country to get the jab.

Thailand’s vaccine rollout had initially been delayed by safety concerns over the use of the AstraZeneca jab, following reports of blood clots from European nations. However, the country’s government ultimately stood by the pharmaceutical company and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha received his first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine on March 16.

Thailand granted emergency authorization to AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine in January and Sinovac’s jab in February, with the nation set to receive shipments of 61 million and two million shots from the companies respectively. It is not yet known how many vaccines Bangkok has ordered from Johnson & Johnson.

Since the start of the pandemic, Thailand has recorded 28,346 confirmed cases of the virus and 92 deaths from the disease, according to data provided by its government to the World Health Organization.

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