Moderna jab bookings set to open

Bumrungrad Hospital is taking bookings to provide the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine to unvaccinated people and healthcare workers.

Artirat Charukitpipat, chief executive officer of Bumrungrad Hospital, said the hospital is opening bookings for the vaccine at 1,650 baht per dose through the hospital website from today.

Dr Artirat said that as fewer vaccines have been allocated than the hospital would like, they need to secure vaccines for those in serious need.

She said unvaccinated people and healthcare workers who have had two doses of Sinovac were a priority.

Dr Artirat said the hospital’s patients are also a priority as the hospital has their drug reaction and treatment history.

The doctor said bookings had not been opened earlier as the hospital needed to be confident about the availability of the vaccine. The hospital is now able to give 300 vaccination jabs a day, over the next six months before the doses expire.

Dr Wichai Techasathit, the hospital’s infectious diseases specialist, said the Moderna vaccine is suitable for unvaccinated people, and health workers who were vaccinated by two doses of Sinopharm or Sinovac and need a booster.

Dr Wichai said the vaccine was also suitable for those people who had their second dose in the past three to six months.

As for people who had one dose of AstraZeneca, they can get a second dose of the same vaccine.

They are then advised to wait for a new generation of vaccines which will be multi-variant vaccines for Covid19. Such vaccines are expected to start production in the first quarter of next year and should be available by the middle of the year.

Dr Wichai said people who have received one shot of AstraZeneca are not recommended to switch their second shot to Moderna as research on possible side effects is still being done.