A student receives a dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine at the Narasikalai school in the southern province of Narathiwat on October 15, 2021.
Madaree TOHLALA / AFP
November 1, 2021: The answer to the question whether the Prayut administration has kept its promise to vaccinate 50% of the population is not easy, as it depends on how one defines “vaccination.”
More than half of the population have received the first shots. Meanwhile, Thailand is a few million more doses shy of giving half the country the second jab.
On October 1, the government announce that each Thai province’s vaccination should cover 50% of its population by the end of the month. As prioritisation and urgency differ from province to province, it’s probably fair to judge success based on whether half of the entire Thai population has been vaccinated by now.
This is where the first shot, second shot issue comes into play, and the debate can be blamed on the apparent government ambiguity. As of October 31 and according to the Public Health Ministry, more than 42 million first doses have been given, easily passing the 50% mark. But when the second shots are concerned, fewer than 31 million doses have been dispensed, meaning more than half of the Thai population have not been “fully vaccinated.”
Overall, when compared to the rest of the world, vaccination coverage is all right. When numbers of infections and deaths are concerned, the situation is anything but.