Sinovac-vaccinated Thai health workers to receive booster

BANGKOK (AP) — A nighttime curfew and other new coronavirus restrictions began Monday in Thailand’s capital and several other provinces, as health officials announced that medical workers will given booster shots of AstraZeneca vaccine after already receiving two doses of China's Sinovac vaccine.

Thailand is battling rising COVID-19 cases and deaths since April worsened by the spread of the more contagious delta variant that was first identified in India.

Thailand reported 8,656 new cases and 80 deaths on Monday, bringing its total since the pandemic began last year to 345,027 confirmed cases and 2,791 deaths. More than 90% of the cases and 95% of the deaths have occurred since early April.

Most cases are in Bangkok and nearby provinces and in the country's four southernmost provinces. The sharp rise in cases has caused a severe shortage of hospital beds for COVID-19 patients, prompting the authorities to allow patients to isolate at home and in community centers.

The head of the Thai Red Cross Emerging Infectious Diseases Health Science Center, Dr. Thiravat Hemachudha, said last week that a study he helped conduct found that Sinovac was less effective at fighting the delta variant, and that a booster dose of AstraZeneca would boost its efficacy, while two doses of AstraZeneca instead was even better.

The National Committee on Communicable Diseases agreed Monday to give booster doses of AstraZeneca to front-line medical personnel who earlier received two doses of Sinovac vaccine. They made the decision after a nurse who received two doses of Sinovac in May died Saturday after contracting COVID-19. Another health worker is hospitalized in critical condition.

The Health Ministry announced Sunday that 618 of 677,348 health workers who have received two doses of Sinovac...