Chinese Government donates 500,000 Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine doses worth $9 million to Thailand in May 2021

During a phone conversation with the Deputy Prime Minister and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, the State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs of China stated China’s intention to donate 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines to support Thailand's efforts to combat the pandemic. The Chinese Government delivered 500,000 donated doses of Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines to the Government of Thailand on May 17, 2021. Then, on June 5, 2021, the Chinese Government delivered another 500,000 donated doses of Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines to the Government of Thailand. The Red Cross Society of China delivered an additional 100,000 donated Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine doses to the Government of Thailand on August 28, 2021 (see project ID#95792). Then, in October 2021, the Government of Thailand announced that it would not place orders for further shipments of Sinovac vaccines once its supply ran out at the end of the month, since the country’s public health authorities planned to switch to AstraZeneca and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses. The decision to end the use of the China-made vaccine came after over 31.5 million Sinovac doses had been administered throughout the country. Then, on November 12, 2021, the Chinese Government delivered another 1,500,000 donated doses of Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines to the Government of Thailand (see project ID#95793). Approximately one month later, on December 8, 2021, the Chinese Government delivered 200,000 donated doses of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccines to the Government of Thailand for use by members of the royal family (see project ID#95795). Then, on January 8, 2022, the Chinese Government delivered another 500,000 donated doses of Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines to the Government of Thailand (see project ID#95796). Less than a month later, on February 4, 2022, the Chinese Government delivered 100,000 donated doses of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccines to the Government of Thailand (see project ID#95797).

Additional details

1. According to the UNICEF COVID-19 Vaccine Market Dashboard, the price of a single Sinovac/Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine dose is $18 (https://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=DCD/DAC/STAT(2022)33&docLanguage=En). As such, AidData has estimated the monetary value of the May 2021 donation as $9 million.

Number of official sources

2

Number of total sources

25