The Public Health Ministry assured that the mixed administration of Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines in series highly stimulates antibodies, is safe.
Confirming the efficacy of the approach, Dr. Kiatiphum Wongrajit, permanent secretary for public health, said 1.5 million doses were already used in the mix-and-match administration of COVID-19 vaccines made by Sinovac and AstraZeneca. The practice proved to be safe and would be the fundamental solution to protect people from COVID-19, he said.
Dr. Supakit Sirilak, director-general of the Department of Medical Sciences, said that Delta became the dominant variant of COVID-19 infections in Thailand and the Public Health Ministry together with experienced researchers found that the administration of the Sinovac vaccine as the first jab and the AstraZeneca vaccine as the second dose boosted antibodies to the same level of two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine but the mixed vaccine administration could finish two doses faster and double the number of fully vaccinated people.
The vaccination approach could also be applied for the third booster shot for the 3 million people who already received two doses of the Sinovac vaccine, he said.
The Department of Medical Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital were proposing the publication of the research on the mix-and-match vaccination and under the emergency situation of COVID-19 outbreaks, the new vaccine administration could not wait for the time-consuming process of the research publication, Dr. Supakit said. (TNA)
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