Thailands Food and Drug Administration （FDA） said on February 4 that it has approved the use of Chinas 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 February 4， Thailand reported 9，909 new confirmed cases during the last 24 hours， the highest daily case tally in more than three months. In December 2021， Thailands FDA gave the green light to allow children aged 5 to 11 to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.