In this Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021 file photo, a medical worker poses with a vial of the Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine in Belgrade, Serbia. (File photo: AP)

BANGKOK, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Thailand announced on Friday that it has approved China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use.

Thailand's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the inactivated vaccine of Sinopharm for emergency use, making it the fifth following the approvals of AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna vaccines, FDA Secretary-General Paisarn Dunkum told a press conference.

The FDA is reviewing the applications of another two COVID-19 vaccines, namely India's Covaxin and the Russia-made Sputnik-V, Paisarn said.

The announcement came as the Southeast Asian country continued to battle against its worst COVID-19 outbreak so far, which has seen its total caseload rising to 144,976 from less than 30,000 at the beginning of April when the latest outbreak started to spread from the capital Bangkok.

The country is expected to roll out a mass inoculation campaign next month and aims to vaccinate 70 percent of its nearly 70 million population by the end of this year.