Thailand Debuts Locally Made AstraZeneca, But Supplies Are Tight

BANGKOK - Health authorities in Thailand began their much-anticipated mass rollout of locally produced AstraZeneca vaccines on Monday, but it appeared that supplies were falling short of demand from patients who had scheduled vaccinations for this week. 

Hospitals in various parts of the country have been posting notices for several days that some scheduled appointments would be delayed, adding to existing public skepticism about how many doses Siam Bioscience would be able to produce each month.   The government has said it will produce 6 million doses in June, then 10 million doses each month from July to November, and 5 million doses in December.  "The vaccines will be delivered as planned," Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha told reporters Monday morning as he paid a visit to a vaccination station at an indoor stadium in the capital, Bangkok.