China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines arrive in Thailand

BANGKOK -- A batch of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines landed in the Thai capital of Bangkok Sunday, increasing support to the Southeast Asian country's battle against its worst wave of outbreak so far.

The shipment, imported by the Chulabhorn Royal Academy (CRA), was transported to the Department of Medical Science for quality check after the arrival, the academy said in a post on its official Facebook account.

The CRA announced on Saturday that 17,070 organizations and companies nationwide had registered to obtain the Sinopharm vaccine to inoculate their employees.

The vaccines were considered as an alternative to the mass inoculation program launched by the government on June 7, which has been proceeded so far mainly with China's Sinovac vaccines and locally-manufactured AstraZeneca vaccines.

The country approved the Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use in May, making it the fifth following the approvals of AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna vaccines.

Thailand aims to vaccinate about 70 percent of its nearly 70 million population by the end of the year. As of Saturday, it has administered more than 7.5 million doses of vaccines.

On Sunday, the country reported 3,682 new cases, taking the total case tally to 218,131, with more than 85 percent of the infections confirmed since the third wave of outbreak began in early April.

Death toll from the viral disease increased by 20 to reach 1,629, according to the Center for the COVID-19 Situation Administration.