Thai health authorities approve Sinovac, Sinopharm vaccines for use in children

Special: Battle Against Novel Coronavirus

Thailand's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Friday that it has approved the use of China's Sinovac and Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines for people 6 years of age and older.

Previously, the FDA only permitted the two vaccines to be used on people aged 18 and above.

The FDA announcement came as the Southeast Asian country has been accelerating vaccine roll-out to step up protection against COVID-19.

On Friday, the country reported 9,909 new confirmed cases during the last 24 hours, the highest daily case tally in more than three months, raising the total number of infections to over 2.47 million, according to the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).

As of Thursday, 70.1 percent of the country's nearly 70-million population had been fully vaccinated, while 21.4 percent had received booster shots, according to the CCSA.

In December 2021, Thailand's FDA gave the green light to allow children aged 5 to 11 to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.