Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said he is ready to be the first Thai to be vaccinated against Covid-19 with the China-made vaccine.
The prime minister's wish may not be granted, however, after health experts announced that priority will be decided according to age.
Dr Sopon Iamsirithaworn, deputy director-general of the Department of Disease Control, said on Monday that Sinovac's vaccine is only recommended for those aged 18-59 due to insufficient data to support its efficacy among those who are younger or older.
Tomorrow, the first delivery 200,000 doses land at Suvarnabhumi airport on a flight from Beijing.
Another 800,000 doses from Sinovac will arrive in March and 1 million more in April. The government has also purchased 26 million doses from AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish pharmaceutical company.
The government has come in for criticism for lagging behind its Southeast Asian neighbours Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia and Singapore, which have already had shipments of the vaccine.
