Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi gave a virtual press statement regarding the arrival of the third batch of AstraZeneca vaccine from the COVAX Facility. (Photo: ANTARA)Thai Prime Minister PrayutChan-o-cha announced that his country will purchase up to 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccinein preparation of unforeseeable emergencies as the pandemic continues to rageon in some countries.
In the immediate future, the Thai government had set atarget of buying 100 million doses to inoculate 50 million out of about 70million Thais and thus create herd immunity, he said.
As thepandemic continues to spread in the country, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has decided to extend a week of COVID-19 prevention measuresto May 17, with placesaffected by the order including schools, entertainment venues and public parks.
Shopping malls can open until 9pm and convenience stores are allowed to shuttheir doors one hour later.
Thailand confirmed2,419 new cases and 19 more deathsrelated to COVID-19 on May 8, lifting its total of infections and fatalities to81,274 and 382, respectively.
In Indonesia, ForeignMinister Retno Marsudi announced that the country received 1,389,600 doses of AstraZenecaCOVID-19 vaccine through the multilateral COVAX Facility on May 8.
Two day earlier,Indonesia also received 55,000 doses of COVID vaccine through themechanism, raising its total to 79.5 million doses, including 68.5 million doses of Sinovac, 6.41 million doses of AstraZeneca and 1million doses of Sinopharm.
Meanwhile, the Manpower Ministry of Singapore said on May 7 that itwill also reschedule entry into Singapore for work pass holders who had earlierobtained approval to come to the country.
Work pass holders fromhigher-risk places who were approved to enter Singapore before July 5 will nolonger be allowed to do so, with the exception of those from the construction,marine shipyard and process sectors and migrant domestic workers.
The agency said it wasmaking these changes during a period of heightened alert, in view of aresurgence of COVID-19 cases in several countries and the emergence of newvirus variants.
With 25 new cases ofCOVID-19 reported on May 7, the total number of infections in Singapore reached61.311./.
VNA
