Southeast Asian nations step up COVID-19 vaccine rollouts

Laos's health authorities are rolling out the second round of vaccination.

A COVID-19 testing facility in Laos

Inoculations of the first doses of Pfizer vaccine and Sinopharm vaccine began on June 15.

A new batch of Sinopharm vaccine provided by the Chinese government arrived in Laos on June 14.

The Pfizer vaccine will be given to people over the age of 60 and those with underlying health conditions. Other priority groups are government officials, medical staff, those who work in border areas, and people who regularly cross the border.

The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 recorded in Laos reached 2,033 on June 16, with 1,910 recoveries and three deaths.

Meanwhile, Cambodia's COVID-19 case tally has risen to 40,157 on the day after 693 new infections were reported across the country in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

Seven more fatalities were confirmed, taking the death toll to 368, the ministry said, adding that 754 more patients recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 34,325.

As of June 15, some 3 million people in Cambodia have received COVID-19 vaccine shots.

The Cambodian plans to administer COVID-19 vaccines to 1.2 million people in the five provinces of Preah Sihanouk, Kampong Speu, Takeo, Kampong Cham and Svay Rieng, after the inoculation is completed in Phnom Penh and Kandal, starting in Preah Sihanouk on June 21.

Meanwhile, Apisamai Srirangson, spokeswoman for Thailand’s Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration, said on June 16 that since April 1, COVID-19 infections at factories producing a wide range of products had been confirmed in 27 provinces.

The spread seems relentless and the centre is concerned about disease control measures at factories, he said.

There were 40 more COVID-19 fatalities and 2,331 new cases reported over the past 24 hours, the Thai Public Health Ministry reported on June 16.

Since the pandemic started early last year, there have been 204,595 COVID-19 cases in Thailand, 167,665 of whom recovered.

Indonesia reported 9,944 new coronavirus infections on June 16, its highest daily number of new cases since February 22, with 196 new deaths.

Indonesia’s total infections are 1,937,652, with 53,476 fatalities overall, according to data from its COVID-19 task force. /.

 VNA