BANGKOK • Thailand kicked off its Covid-19 inoculation campaign yesterday, with Cabinet ministers, health officials and medical professionals among the first in the queue to receive vaccinations.

The first doses of the vaccine, developed by China's Sinovac Biotech, were given to Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who is also the Health Minister, among others at an infectious diseases institute on the outskirts of Bangkok.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who presided over the kick-off of the programme, said: "Today's event is to assure the public about the safety of the vaccine that the government will roll out from now on."

Mr Prayut, 66, was not inoculated yesterday as earlier planned because the Sinovac shot is not recommended for people of his age, Dr Opas Kankawinpong, director-general of the Disease Control Department, told a briefing on Saturday.

South-east Asia's second-biggest economy aims to inoculate 50 per cent of its population by the end of this year as the government tries to reopen its borders, which have been closed for almost a year to curb the outbreak. Thailand received its first 200,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine from China and 117,00 imported doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine last week.

A mass campaign to administer 10 million doses a month is set to begin in June, with 61 million shots of the AstraZeneca vaccine produced by local firm Siam Bioscience.

With a tally of just over 25,000 infections, Thailand has escaped the kind of fallout suffered by some other countries since the pandemic began last year.

REUTERS, BLOOMBERG