Sputnik vaccine approved

[reader]

From The Thaiger

he Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration quietly okayed the Russian Sputnik vaccine as one of the accepted vaccine brands for international travellers entering Sandbox destinations in Thailand. The vaccine had previously failed to receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration for import and use in Thailand. The Department of Disease Control is now expected to approve the order from the CCSA by the end of August, moving one step closer to the ability for Russians and others from the dozens of countries who used the Sputnik vaccine to travel to Thailand soon.

Tropical Thai destinations have long seen strong visitor numbers from Russia, with Phuket seeing 1.4 million Russians before Covid-19 closed international tourism. With Thailand closed, many Russians holidayed in Turkey and Greece during the pandemic, showing they still desire to travel. The Tourism Authority of Thailand hopes that 500,000 Russian travellers will visit this year now that the Sputnik vaccine has been approved.

The approval of the Sputnik vaccine for international travellers opens the doors of Thailand not just to Russian travellers, but for millions of travellers around the world in countries that have imported or produced the vaccine. Data is conflicting, but about 50 countries have or plan to have the vaccine, with India and South Korea both contracted to produce well over 1 billion vaccines.

Countries like Vietnam, Turkey, Mexico, Argentina have all ordered the Russian Sputnik vaccines, and India, one of Thailand’s fastest-growing tourist demographics before the pandemic, ordered 250 million doses, meaning this new approval could allow millions more tourists to enter.

The TAT says they expect the first chartered flights from Russia will be in October, and the TAT plans to work with commercial airlines to get international flights into Phuket scheduled to facilitate Russian travellers coming to the Sandbox and into Thailand.

https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/tourism/ccsa-approves-sputnik-vaccine-allowing-russian-sandboxers

 

[vinapu]

47 minutes ago, reader said:

With Thailand closed, many Russians holidayed in Turkey and Greece during the pandemic, showing they still desire to travel. The Tourism Authority of Thailand hopes that 500,000 Russian travellers will visit this year now that the Sputnik vaccine has been approved.

....

The TAT says they expect the first chartered flights from Russia will be in October, and the TAT plans to work with commercial airlines to get international flights into Phuket scheduled to facilitate Russian travellers coming to the Sandbox and into Thailand.

 

 

Russians, like many others  went to Greece and Turkey because restrictions were manageable and minimal, no sandboxes, no tests, just show proof of vaccination and you can go where you want all the way from Istanbul to Kars. What is so hard to TAT to understand? 

[floridarob]

From a professor that I know, he says that Sputnick is probably the best,  longest lasting covid vaccine available

[Guest]

46 minutes ago, vinapu said:

Russians, like many others  went to Greece and Turkey because restrictions were manageable and minimal, no sandboxes, no tests, just show proof of vaccination and you can go where you want all the way from Istanbul to Kars. What is so hard to TAT to understand? 

There have been at least 2 fundamental changes since late 2020, which the Thai government does not seem to incorporate in it's thinking:

1  The horse has bolted, so there is no need to keep the stable door shut any more.  Whilst Thailand had NO covid in 2020, it made sense to have strict quarantine for inbound tourists and would have made sense to do the same with people coming over land borders.   Now covid is all over Thailand, inbound and double vaccinated tourists would make little difference to the covid pandemic.

2  Thailand now has the delta variant.    Half baked lockdowns will not eliminate this.    They need vaccines and the effectiveness of vaccines has been a known since late 2020 & something that could already have been considered highly probable over a year ago, based on early trial results.   Yet the government has been slow procuring vaccines.

[reader]

From Reuters / MSN

Thailand to explore injecting coronavirus vaccines under skin

BANGKOK, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Thailand is studying the possibility of injecting coronavirus vaccines under the skin to try to stretch its limited supply, a health official said on Thursday, as the country races to inoculate the public faster amid a worsening epidemic.

"Our previous experience shows that intradermal injections uses 25% of a muscular injection, but triggers the same level of immunity," head of the medical science department, Supakit Sirilak told reporters.

But despite manufacturing vaccines for AstraZeneca and ordering enough doses of different brands to cover its population, Thailand is struggling to get supplies fast enough.

If its research confirms intradermal injections are effective, regardless of brand, Thailand could vaccinate four to five times the number of people with the same amount of vaccine, Supakit said.

AstraZeneca and Pfizer did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment about intradermal injections.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/thailand-to-explore-injecting-coronavirus-vaccines-under-skin/ar-AANuzAM

 

[vinapu]

53 minutes ago, reader said:

 

Thailand to explore injecting coronavirus vaccines under skin

 

 

good to know but it's best to leave to scientists IN THE FIELD to explore this option. Who knows , it may work

[spoon]

A quick google on intradermal injection for covid-19 vaccine does shows quite a number of studies claiming similar effectiveness with less amount of vaccine. For countries that does have limited supply, this might be worth the risk to investigate