BANGKOK, June 11 (The Nation) - Thailand's Public Health Ministry says it will wait for China and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to certify Sinovac vaccine safe for use in children aged 3 and over before doing the same in Thailand.

Another batch of 1 million Sinovac doses landed at 5.30am on Thursday, bringing the total number of doses for Thailand’s mass vaccination programme to 7.5 million.

Health Ministry permanent secretary Kiattiphum Wongrachit said a study in China was underway to discover the correct Sinovac dosage, number of injections and period between injections for children.

Kiattiphum also gave an overview of progress in Thailand’s mass vaccination, which launched on Monday. He said about 30 per cent of vaccine recipients have reported slight fever, a normal side effect that usually disappears after 24-48 hours.

He also revealed a phenomenon of recipients refusing Sinovac vaccine and insisting on the AstraZeneca brand instead. Both vaccines were high-quality and effective in boosting immunity to prevent severe Covid symptoms and death, he said. Therefore, people should accept what they were offered by medics, Kiattiphum advised.

Responding to complaints that “VIPs” have been queue-jumping at vaccination centres, Kiattiphum said staff at the centres had been deployed to manage queues properly.