covid-19 vaccines

Hundreds of Thais inoculated with Sinovac are infected as cases spike in Southeast Asia

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Quiet streets on Monday in Bangkok, where coronavirus restrictions were recently tightened. (Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP/Getty Images)

More than 600 Thai medical workers who were fully inoculated with the Sinovac vaccine were infected by the coronavirus, which is now raging through Southeast Asia.

The 618 cases were among the 677,348 medical staff who had received two doses of the Chinese-developed coronavirus vaccine between April to July, government data show. Among those infected are a nurse who died and a health-care worker in critical condition.

A Thai health official said Sunday that an expert panel has recommended administering a third dose to at-risk medical workers, adding that the booster shot would be either one from Oxford-AstraZeneca or a messenger RNA vaccine made by either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna. The country is set to receive 1.5 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine from the United States this month.

(source: washingtonpost)

Covid-19: Vaccine diplomacy

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The vaccine inequity that threatens us all

Of the nearly 400 million vaccines delivered so far, about 90 percent have gone to residents of wealthy and middle-income countries, while the rest of the world may have to wait years, potentially prolonging the pandemic.

By partnering with drug companies, Western leaders bought their way to the front of the line, while billions of people wait their turn. But virus variants originating in mostly unvaccinated countries could eventually undo richer countries’ progress, blunting the effect of vaccines.

Vaccine diplomacy: Russia and China have promised to fill the void, entering into partnerships with producers in places such as Kazakhstan and Indonesia. The global vaccine alliance Covax, which stands to receive $4 billion from the Biden administration, aims to vaccinate 20 percent of people in the world’s poorest countries this year. It faces a $2 billion shortfall.

Here’s a global look at who can get vaccinated right now. And here are the latest updates and maps of the pandemic.