BANGKOK, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Thursday emphasized on the urgency of purchasing COVID-19 vaccines, on the eve of inking a contract between Thailand's National Vaccine Institute and vaccine developer AstraZeneca Plc.
"Thailand managed to prevent a resurgence of COVID-19 infections, and that was the result of cooperation from all state and private agencies," said Prayut via state television.
"If we had lax effort in containing the virus, it would have taken a huge toll on Thailand's national health system and a grim economy that was already suffering from serious drought and a slow global economy in the pre-pandemic era," he said.
"We are preparing for the next phase in managing the COVID crisis, so that it does not do even greater damage to our country's economy and to people's livelihoods," Prayut said.
"The long-term solution to overcoming the crisis of the COVID pandemic is the availability of a vaccine and its adequate distribution to people," he said.
Prayut said there are currently several groups of vaccine producers with a high possibility of producing COVID-19 vaccines successfully, with some countries making huge pre-orders.
"Thailand, too, must be able to get sufficient doses of a successful vaccine early," Prayut said.
Thailand's National Vaccine Institute last month signed a contract with the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca to produce a vaccine in Thailand and to mass produce them locally.
"We expect this vaccine to be properly certified, approved for use and in production by the middle of next year. The sooner we can advance this timetable, the sooner we can open our doors to large numbers of visitors and begin the task of rebuilding our economy," the prime minister said. Enditem
