To Samdech, His Excellency, Lok Chumteav, Lok Oknha, Ladies and Gentlemen!
These few days, there have been various requests from Excellencies, Lok Chumteavs, Nak Oknha, Ladies and Gentlemen, who have had AstraZeneca injection (for first and second doses), to have the AstraZeneca as a third dose. Let me emphasize on this issue that, as the country is going through a difficult time already, please do not cause further problem on this. I want to highlight that there are two issues, which we cannot provide (AstraZeneca as requested) at this moment, and please stop making additional requests from either institutions or those who wish to request.
The first problem is that we have not yet studied the duration gap between the first dose and the second dose for the AstraZeneca vaccine. We have only learned the duration gap for Sinovac and Sinopharm that we might offer AstraZeneca for a third dose or as a boosting dose. However, for those who inject AstraZeneca, we have not studied the gap between the first dose and the second dose; and the Royal Government and the Ministry of Health itself have yet to determine the injection for this boosting dose.
Second, we do not have enough vaccines. We can only provide frontline officials who have vaccinated with Sinovac and Sinopharm. The AstraZeneca vaccine provided as assistance so far is not enough. I am ordering the (Vaccines) Procurement Commission to seek the acquisition of AstraZeneca for those who have already injected it. There have been appeals from those who have not received the first dose yet and sought for AstraZeneca injection upon its arrival, regardless of the state of the vaccine crisis.
Let me state to Excellencies, Lok Chumteavs, Lok Oknha, Ladies, and Gentlemen regarding the third dose to suspend their request applications. Vaccination can only begin unless there is a thorough study of the gap between the first dose, the second dose, and the third dose, and only when we have the vaccine before we started to vaccinate those who have received the first and second doses of AstraZeneca vaccine.
For those who have not had injection and are requesting an AstraZeneca injection, still, we will not provide the dose because we need a third dose for our frontline forces deployed to seven provinces last Sunday. We have distributed AstraZeneca vaccine to (frontline officials in) provinces, including the army, the accompanying police force, veterans, and athletes who will compete in the SEA Games, who have previously had Sinopharm or Sinovac injection. There are already tens of thousands of them. Therefore, we cannot find (the amount of) AstraZeneca as requested for Excellencies, Lok Chumteavs, Ladies, and Gentlemen.
Observing such a movement, I issued this audio message pleading everyone to respond to the arrangements of the Ministry of Health and the arrangements led by myself in these difficult circumstances. I hope that Excellencies, Lok Chumteavs, Lok Oknha, Ladies and Gentlemen, who have already had two doses of AstraZeneca, wait for the study and wait for AstraZeneca vaccine to arrive next time. The AstraZeneca assistance of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland will expire this September, and the Japanese one does not have a long-term validity either. The AstraZeneca vaccine is only valid for six months. Therefore, I hope that Excellencies, Lok Chumteavs, Lok Oknha, Neak Oknha, Ladies and Gentlemen, understand the difficulties we are going through./.
