Thailand races to roll out COVID-19 vaccines to prisoners

BANGKOK: Thai prisoners rolled up their sleeves to get coronavirus jabs on Friday (Jun 25) as the kingdom seeks to tackle a mass infection outbreak in its overcrowded jails.

Authorities have been trying to contain a recent virus surge in the penal system, where some inmates have less space to sleep than the inside of a coffin.

There have been more than 35,000 COVID-19 cases inside prisons and inmates have been encouraged to wear masks even when they sleep at night.

READ: COVID-19 sweeps through Thailand's overcrowded prisons

The government has begun rolling out an initial batch of 300,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine across the country's jails.

Inmates at Chonburi Central Prison, two hours southwest of Bangkok, lined up on Friday morning to receive their jabs.

"Overcrowding in prisons is a factor making it difficult to prevent this kind of disease," the institution's director, Chan Vachiradath, told AFP.

He said the nearly 6,300 inmates at his prison had so far remained coronavirus-free, but staff are on guard.

Every prisoner had to undergo a swab test before their vaccination and priority was given to elderly inmates and those suffering underlying medical conditions that made them more vulnerable to severe illness.

READ: COVID-19: Provisional release on the cards for some inmates in Thailand amid overcrowding

Thailand has around 311,000 prisoners, according to International Federation for Human Rights figures from earlier this year - more than two-and-a-half times the system's official capacity.

Four out of five prisoners are serving time for drug charges because of harsh anti-narcotics laws that can see offenders jailed for a decade for possessing just a few methamphetamine pills. 

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