BANGKOK • Thailand will order an additional 10 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, its Health Ministry said yesterday, as the South-east Asian country battles its biggest Covid-19 outbreak to date.

Since April, Thailand has been tackling a surge in infections driven by the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, pushing hospitals in the capital Bangkok to the brink.

The country's Covid-19 task force reported 17,345 new cases and 117 new deaths yesterday.

Thailand will take delivery of 20 million doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine later this year, but also has plans to order an additional 10 million shots from the company, Health Ministry official Kiatiphum Wongrajit told reporters. Thailand received its first batch of 1.5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine donated by the US government yesterday.

Thailand's vaccine drive has so far depended on the Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines and faced delays since it began last month. Just 5.6 per cent of the country's population have been fully vaccinated so far.

Separately, Thailand yesterday banned the dissemination of "false messages" that affect security, drawing accusations from media groups that it is trying to crack down on criticism of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said this week that the spread of fake news had become a major problem causing confusion in society and undermining the government's ability to manage the pandemic.

An emergency decree that took effect yesterday prohibits the dissemination of false messages and distorted news that cause panic, misunderstanding or confusion "affecting state security, abusing the rights of others, and order or good morality of the people".

The decree empowers the state regulator, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, to order service providers to block Internet access to individual IP addresses if it believes they are disseminating false news and to inform the police to take legal action.

REUTERS