"immunity"

It is up to each person to decide whether he or she would like to get a fifth Covid-19 jab as they have received vaccine doses for more than a year, top virologist Dr Yong Poovorawan said on Thursday.

Almost one out of every five young children in Thailand has already been infected with Covid-19, a leading virologist said on Monday.

Thailand has raised the age of criminal responsibility to 12 years old unconditionally and to 15 years with conditions, under a legal amendment that took effect on Sunday.

People will need to continue receiving Covid-19 vaccine jabs to stimulate immunity against the virus in the long term, expert virologist Dr Yong Poovorawan wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday.

Administrating different types of Covid-19 vaccines provides high immunity against the virus and reduces the death rate, expert virologist Dr Yong Poovorawan said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

Those who received two Sinovac or Sinopharm shots have been advised to get a viral vector or mRNA vaccine booster, while a fourth jab could even be necessary.

Thailand must create immunity for vulnerable groups such as elders over 60 years old, pregnant women, and people with seven underlying diseases, Weerawat Manosuthi, deputy director of the Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute, said at an online seminar organised by the National Vaccine Institute in cooperation with the World Health Organisation (WHO) on how to deal with the Covid-19 Omicron variant.

Being “fully vaccinated” would mean requiring both “prime” and “booster” vaccinations, with at least a six-month period before the booster jab, expert virologist Dr Yong Poovorawan wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

Covid-19 will become a seasonal disease once everybody has developed an immunity against the virus, expert virologist Dr Yong Poovorawan said in a Facebook post on Monday.

Chulalongkorn University’s virology specialist Dr Yong Poovorawan on Wednesday suggested that Covid-19 jabs be provided to children aged three and above in a bid to create herd immunity.

The 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) have developed a 10-year strategy to support the region’s routine vaccination efforts and enhance the resilience and sustainability of immunisation programmes in the region through 2030.

Mixing and matching inactivated and viral-vector vaccines generates higher immunity than two doses of the same vaccine, according to Chulalongkorn University virologist Dr Yong Poovorawan.