Phillip9

2 hours ago, bbabythai said:

respect her a lot for doing this but wonder if she knows the risks inherent with visiting airports, long haul flights, taxis and hotels. Quite a significant risk to take just to get a vaccine. 

On my recent flight to the US, neither of my flights were more than 10% full and everyone on those planes was tested before departure.  The highest risk part of the trip was probably the taxi ride to the airport in Bangkok.  

Vaccines are readily available in every pharmacy in the US for free.  I don't know why more people aren't doing this.

21 hours ago, brewsterbudgen said:

But does anyone think a complete lockdown (like I understand they had in China) in Thailand would be worth the harmful consequences

China only locked down part of the country for a month or two.  They have been back to near normal for more than a year now. 

Surely the next year or more of continuous softer restrictions that Thailand now faces until they can vaccinate most of the population is far worse than that.

7 minutes ago, Orient Express said:

Just checked my appointment at MTT on 3rd May and it still shows it as valid.

This is Thailand......I wouldn't assume their online appointment system is sophisticated enough to know about holidays.  You may have a valid appointment and show up at immigration and find them closed.

2 hours ago, Jingthing said:

That makes sense but it's recent news that Americans don't want it. So I'm assuming J and J was planning on supplying many millions to Americans that won't be going to Americans anymore. So maybe that is a source of "new" supply?

The US has given no indication they will give up their jnj vaccine.  They have already bought and paid for the vaccine.  They are planning on maintaining a vaccine surplus because booster shots will soon be needed.  It would be politically devastating if they gave it away, and then it was later needed for a booster or because of some new variant.  

Thailand will have to get in line behind dozens of other countries that have already placed orders for the JnJ vaccine months ago.  Maybe Thailand could get some this time next year if they order soon.

Either a pcr or antigen test is ok.  I will be shocked if they don't actually check it before you depart.  Everyone on my plane also had theirs inspected on arrival to the US when I returned last week.

2 hours ago, asiacurious said:

Alas.... Getting out of dodge requires flying on planes where there will likely be infected individuals.  Not necessarily on the flight out of Thailand but on connecting flights

On my recent connecting flight from singapore to the US, there were a total of about 10 people on the entire plane.  I've heard connecting flights through qatar are similarly empty, so extremely low risk.  

Vaccines are free for anyone, and easily available at almost any pharmacy in the US now.  Even foreigners shouldn't have a problem getting one.

6 hours ago, rodknock said:

why would some one want to go to a private hospital for the same vaccination the government gives and pay a rip off price.

You will probably have to wait until 2023 to get a vaccine from the Thai government.  At least there is some hope that private hospitals will have vaccines by the end of this year.  Your choice if you want to wait indefinitely for your free shot.

1 hour ago, michel7752 said:

Arriving Phuket: I assume you will also be able to arrive at Phuket via Bangkok (transit), or not? For example Zürich - Bangkok (transit) - Phuket.

What do you think?

Some of the news articles talked about direct charter flights into phuket.  No one know for sure at this point.

I doubt this whole thing will even happen.  With the covid outbreak, they will have to prioritize vaccines to bangkok now, so phuket will not be the first to get herd immunity.  So best not to get your hopes up, or just quarantine and get it over with if you really want to come to Thailand.  It may be more than a year before quarantine free travel is a reality.

1 hour ago, brewsterbudgen said:

This thread is about them making it available to other British citizens.

Yah, obviously everyone knows that.  Point being this wouldn't be hard for an embassy to do as others have said.  They have already done it for their staff, it would be easy to expand the program to all citizens.

2 hours ago, GroveHillWanderer said:

These include being a licensed medical facility with the personnel, equipment and facilities to deal with any allergic reactions that can occur, such as anaphylactic shock.

It wouldn't be hard to outsource the actual injection and have a private hospital do it.  

Many countries have certainly already done it for their own staff working at their embassy.  I'm sure the US has already vaccinated or offered vaccines to all of their diplomats worldwide.

 It is very unlikely Thailand will be red listed.  They literally haven't changed that list for 6+ months.  It was really just a list of countries trump hated and had little to do with actual covid infections in those countries.

1 hour ago, John435 said:

Presumably you’d have to stay at least 7 days in Phuket? Maybe have another COVID test before leaving for another Thai destination?

For sure.  They aren't just going to let people leave Phuket for another province immediately after arrival like the OP suggested.  You will certainly have to stay on Phuket  a week or two and probably get tested before you leave.

6 hours ago, loveinbangkok said:

Does anyone know am I allow to enter Singapore just for transit if my passport is expiring in just a few more days? 

I'm not sure.  Best to call Singapore Airlines and ask them.

A good option if you need a direct flight is the Ethiopian airlines flight on April 22.   They are quite a good reliable airline, and they have been flying the Bkk to KL route.   Its very unlikely they will cancel that flight at this point.

3 hours ago, DJBenz said:

You didn't read wrong, it seems Coravax was studied in some (yet to be peer reviewed) pre-clinical trials

But coravax is not the rabies vaccine.  He seems to have read that part wrong.  It is based on the rabies vector, but altered specifically for covid.  Any previous rabies vaccination will do nothing to protect against covid.

4 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

I think they have been doing some repatriation flights to KL for Thais wanting to return. They accept departing passengers from here that can enter Malaysia.

It's very suspicious that they have no flights at all scheduled for the next 2 weeks, and then after that 2 flights scheduled every week. 

This is the same game many airlines are playing:  Keep flights on the schedule they know they won't actually fly, then cancel them 2 weeks before departure.  Then they will try not to give you a refund.

OP:  If you want to try booking with Thai, wait until less than one week before departure to book the flight.  Airlines usually won't cancel a flight on short notice.

13 hours ago, loveinbangkok said:

What about Thai Airways? I am thinking to book it.

No, No, No....They are not reliable.  They haven't been actually flying the bkk to KL route.  They will very likely cancel your flight if you book with them.  Currently, I would strongly recommend singapore for that route.  They have quite cheap flights starting at 125 USD.

8 hours ago, BritTim said:

To get home at short notice, you may need to fly Singapore Airlines via Singapore. This will be expensive, and you need to confirm that the transfer will be permitted.

Yep, that route will work fine.  You can transit Singapore with no problem if coming from Thailand.  Singapore flew to KL just this morning (I can confirm that because I am sitting in singapore airport right now and heard the departure call awhile ago).  The ticket shouldn't be terribly expensive.

1 hour ago, carlyai said:

Is Singapore Airlines a reliable airline Bangkok to Australia? Or should I panic?

Singapore is quite reliable.  One of the best.  I wouldn't worry.   

40 minutes ago, Kiujunn said:

 

It used to be that these tests were available in clinics,  but not for sale to the general public. 

I don't think this has changed

 

Yes, some clinics are offering these, usually for about half the price of pcr tests.   I haven't seen them on sale to the public.

Be careful, there are places trying to sell antibody tests, but those will only be positive after you've had covid for a week or more.

39 minutes ago, BritTim said:

Anyway, it is a fact that there is no reason to tighten restrictions on arrivals when Thailand has a domestic outbreak. If anything, it becomes less imperative to prevent foreign arrivals potentially spreading Covid.

If the situation significantly worsens, and the UK variant is blamed, it could make them more worried about letting other variants into the country.  They could easily go back to the full 14 day quarantine for countries with other risky variants. 

1 hour ago, Sheryl said:

is entirely due to domestic transmission, nothing to do with people entering from abroad, there is no logical reason for it to affect policies re visa

The current wave is from the UK variant.  It came from somewhere abroad.