Thai PM Wants Study On Vaccine Passports

By Linda Khoo Hui Li BANGKOK, March 3 (Bernama) -- Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan o-cha Tuesday ordered relevant authorities to study a COVID-19 vaccine certificate system for international travellers, in a bid to revive its battered tourism industry. “Thailand will monitor the effectiveness and impact of COVID-19 vaccines in containing the spread of the virus. “I have ordered the Foreign Ministry and Public Health Ministry to conduct a study so we can be prepared and work in line with other countries,” he said in a Facebook post Tuesday. Local media reported that the authorities will meet next week to discuss further on vaccine passports or certificate that provide proof that a traveller has received full vaccination as well as quarantine arrangements for visitors entering Thailand with vaccine passports. Monday, Tourism Minister Pipat Ratchakitprakarn hoped visitors with vaccine passports would be reduced of their mandatory quarantine from 14 days to three days. With the vaccine passports, he said Thailand could welcome at least 5 million tourists in the kingdom this year. Thailand received only 6.7 million foreign tourists last year, mostly in the first quarter before the ban was imposed in April, compared to nearly 40 million arrivals in 2019. Meanwhile, Thailand's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) disclosed that U,S. biotechnology firm, Moderna Inc would file its application this month. FDA’s secretary-general Dr Paisarn Dunkum said Johnson & Johnson (J&J) have filed its application and the result is expected to be known late this month or early April. To date, Thailand’s FDA has approved the emergency use of two COVID-19 vaccines – AstraZeneca and China’s Sinovac. Meanwhile, Thailand recorded 42 new COVID-19 cases and one fatality over the last 24 hours, bringing the total infections in the kingdom to 26,073 cases and 84 deaths. The single fatality is a 92-year-old Thai man with underlying health conditions from Pathum Thani province. -- BERNAMA