FILE PHOTO: A medical worker prepares a syringe with coronavirus disease vaccine for a member of Klong Toey community, in Bangkok, Thailand on May 4, 2021. BANGKOK: Vaccine hesitancy has risen sharply in Thailand opinion polls show, just weeks away from the start of a mass inoculation programme and as the country fights its deadliest COVID-19 outbreak.
In January, 83 per cent of Thais surveyed by polling firm YouGov were willing to be vaccinated, but by May that dropped to 63 per cent in the same poll, lower than Vietnam and the Philippines at 83 per cent and 66 per cent willingness, respectively. With Thailand's main vaccination drive, which is due to start Jun 7, relying heavily on AstraZeneca, respondents had 66 per cent confidence in the shot, fourth behind US-developed vaccines, with Pfizer-BioNTech top at 75 per cent.Thailand aims to inoculate 70 per cent of its population by year-end, a level its tourist hotspots must also reach locally before reopening to vaccinated foreign visitors.
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