BANGKOK: Chinese citizens living in Thailand started getting COVID-19 jabs on Thursday (May 20) as part of China’s global campaign to inoculate its nationals living and working abroad.
The vaccines were donated by China to be administered to its nationals as Thailand slowly rolls out shots for its own citizens to contain a coronavirus surge that has sickened tens of thousands in the past two months.
It was unclear how many of the 150,000 Chinese citizens living in Thailand will be inoculated under Beijing’s “Spring Sprouts” program in this round of inoculations, but China recently donated 500,000 vaccine doses to Thailand. China has so far supplied millions of doses to the country.
The Thai government has said it will vaccinate Thais before inoculating most other foreigners, regardless of risk factors or age.
Just over 2 per cent of Thailand’s 70 million people have received a first vaccine dose and about 1 per cent have received a second. The government hopes to inoculate 70 per cent of its people by the end of the year, but has been criticised for taking too long to start vaccinating.
A health worker administers a dose of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine to Zhang Xiaohong, a 40-year-old businessman who runs a logistics company in Thailand, at Bangrak Vaccination and Health Center in Bangkok on Thursday, May 20, 2021. (Photo: AP/Fu Ting)
In downtown Bangkok, a Chinese volunteer with a white mask, transparent face shield and blue gloves stood in front of a red banner reading “Spring Sprout Action” flanked by the flags of China and Thailand at a vaccination centre.
A dozen people waited to get a cursory medical check as nurses, accompanied by a translator, gave Chinese-made Sinovac shots in another room.
“I am happy and proud to be able to get a vaccine on day one organised by my government,” said Zhang Xiaohong, 40, who runs a logistics company in Thailand. He said he believes the Chinese government cares about its people.
Qin Qing, a 39-year-old real estate broker in Bangkok, said she was a bit nervous before getting the shot and felt slightly dizzy afterwards.
“I am grateful for my country and the embassy, and people who help to make it happen, from airline staff who fly the vaccines here and Thai medical workers,” she said.
Thailand had largely contained coronavirus cases last year by closing its borders, enforcing mandatory quarantines and actively tracing contacts of those found to be infected. The measures devastated its lucrative tourism industry but kept the pandemic at bay, for the most part, until early April.
Then a surge that began in high-end nightspots in central Bangkok spread rapidly as people were allowed to travel during a mid-April national holiday.
On Thursday, health authorities reported 2,636 new cases and 25 deaths for a total of 119,585 infections and 703 deaths since the pandemic began. Of that number, 90,722 confirmed cases and 609 deaths have been recorded since Apr 1.
A partial lockdown in recent weeks has made limited headway in containing outbreaks, especially in Bangkok and in prisons.
The capital has been hit especially hard, with thousands of cases surfacing in slums, crowded low-income housing and camps housing construction workers.
Thailand has a population of about 70 million. More than 2.5 million are from neighbouring countries, including Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. Many are employed at construction sites and in factories.
Chinese nationals are the most numerous foreigners living in Thailand who are not from neighbouring countries. They are the only foreigners being vaccinated under the Spring Sprouts campaign.
Natapanu Nopakun, deputy spokesman for Thailand’s foreign ministry, said on Thursday that there are around 1.3 million legal migrant workers in Bangkok and its vicinity and more than 1 million illegal ones across the country. The labour ministry intends to inoculate them as well because their high mobility is a risk factor in curbing infections.
Another 200,000 foreigners – from Australia, Japan, Europe, the United States and elsewhere – are mostly professionals and retirees. For now, they can only obtain COVID-19 shots by travelling overseas and would face lengthy, expensive quarantines on their return.
Groups representing Americans living in Thailand sent a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week asking the government to supply some of the millions of unused vaccine doses available in the US to inoculate American citizens in Thailand.
Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram