Pattaya's Coronavirus Cock-up: Chaos on first day of lockdown as leaders scurry for rethink

[webfact]

Pattaya's Coronavirus Cock-up: Chaos on first day of lockdown as leaders scurry for rethink

 

Picture: ThaivisaNews

 

Pattaya's leaders are desperately scurrying to rethink the lock down of the city, once Thailand's premier tourist resort. 

 

Plans to instigate a lock down at 2 pm yesterday soon became a disaster as traffic - a perennial problem in the once crowded city - became unbearable. 

 

PR Pattaya City reported on Facebook that the five checkpoints stopping traffic were reopened and a meeting was hurriedly arranged chaired by Pattaya mayor Sontaya Khunpluem and Bang Lamung District chief Amnat Charoensri. 

 

Picture: ThaivisaNews

 

77kaoded said it was not just the traffic - each of the five checkpoints were struggling to interpret what ID was necessary to move in and out of the city.

 

This created horrendous delays. 

 

Concrete barriers blocking traffic had to be removed to allow the flow to continue.

 

Picture: 77kaoded

 

A better system is hoped for today though the story seems to be falling into the category of "watch this space". 

 

The lock down order was discussed for a couple of days before being signed by the Chonburi governor and came after a spike in coronavirus cases in the city.

 

Sources: PR Pattaya City | 77kaoded

 

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[Wiggy]

Classic.

[ThreeEyedRaven]

When a good result is commensurate with thoughtful planning, and a disaster with little or none, this was to be expected. 

[cyril sneer]

Amazing what 1-2 elderly deaths a day can do

[YetAnother]

6 minutes ago, webfact said:

77kaoded said it was not just the traffic - each of the five checkpoints were struggling to interpret what ID was necessary to move in and out of the city.

typical thai thinking and planning ; contingencies ? what are they ?!

[colinneil]

Leaders in Pattaya scurry for rethink?

Problem is they didnt think before deciding on a lock down, they just implemented it without thinking it out first.

[darksidedog]

Maybe they should have tried something easier first as practice for good planning, like taking a bunch of drunkards to a brewery and trying to persuade them to drink their fill.

[Toany]

They will have to sort things quickly.  The airports of Wuhan are open again.  Soon there will be hordes of Chinese trying to enter Pattaya.

[ChipButty]

Back to the Drawing board

[z42]

An absolute shambles and a disgrace. By some accounts of people on the ground there, the numbers of homeless and rough sleepers is exploding as landlords are being absolutely mercenary, and the governments inability to get any protections for the vulnerable in place are really hitting hard.

 

Whether or not the dangers of the virus are overstated, the responses by the government have made an already terrible situation worse.

 

I don't see how major consequences are going to be avoided. The discontent is swelling already.

[Thailand]

Pro active/Re active.

 

And so few infections and deaths around the country and reducing,according to figures.  

[spiekerjozef]

That went well...

[dcsw53]

If these so called leaders had brains they would be dangerous.
Mind you they would not be in the job, they would be over qualified

[sungod]

17 minutes ago, z42 said:

An absolute shambles and a disgrace. By some accounts of people on the ground there, the numbers of homeless and rough sleepers is exploding as landlords are being absolutely mercenary, and the governments inability to get any protections for the vulnerable in place are really hitting hard.

 

Whether or not the dangers of the virus are overstated, the responses by the government have made an already terrible situation worse.

 

I don't see how major consequences are going to be avoided. The discontent is swelling already.

Whilst I dont disagree, I think you are the the wrong thread ????

[petermik]

Methinks "OK we lock down City stop spread of virus"

              "Good idea Boss...yes"

              "but Boss....how do we do this"

              "not sure.....let me think again"

             

 

 

[RedPill]

They are really good at creating mass groupings of ppl at one spot

 

Maybe meant well, but executed on so badly.

 

[z42]

14 minutes ago, sungod said:

Whilst I dont disagree, I think you are the the wrong thread ????

Disagree. The headline for this story is about local leaders cocking up and having to rethink. My post gives examples of how cockups up to now are affecting local residents are working, and how without a rethink will continue to sow discontent and create additional problems on the side.

 

Either way mate, we're on the same train of thought i imagine in how we're viewing the authorities" handling of this whole thing.

[Cake Monster]

36 minutes ago, Toany said:

They will have to sort things quickly.  The airports of Wuhan are open again.  Soon there will be hordes of Chinese trying to enter Pattaya.

Why do you think the Virus daily figures are lowest in the World, and the contagion curve is completely different from any other Nations.

Covid19 revisited to come.

[Jimbo53]

39 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

Back to the Drawing board

TIT.

[damascase]

50 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

Back to the Drawing board

Do you rhink they have one?

[bert bloggs]

1 hour ago, Toany said:

They will have to sort things quickly.  The airports of Wuhan are open again.  Soon there will be hordes of Chinese trying to enter Pattaya.

they will have special permission to enter and their own bus lane ,

[Matzzon]

No big deal! Mistakes happens. This is not a normal situation, and many of the persons planning this, is doing this for the first time and hopefully once in their life time. I am sure they will fix it and make it work. Everybody can make mistakes.

[LennyW]

This shambles, although touted as a lockdown to contain the virus, is purely to halt the inevitable flow of Bangkokians expected to descend on Pattaya for the Songkran perioid - officially cancelled or not, many people are taking the holiday anyway!!

[smedly]

1 hour ago, z42 said:

An absolute shambles and a disgrace. By some accounts of people on the ground there, the numbers of homeless and rough sleepers is exploding as landlords are being absolutely mercenary, and the governments inability to get any protections for the vulnerable in place are really hitting hard.

 

Whether or not the dangers of the virus are overstated, the responses by the government have made an already terrible situation worse.

 

I don't see how major consequences are going to be avoided. The discontent is swelling already.

24 million across Thailand applied for financial support, even if only 12 million deserved it only 1.2 million were approved, a lot of Thai people work off book (freelance), now that most of that market has been shut down what are they supposed to do, the government quite obviously doesn't give a toss and these lock downs are preventing needy people going to stay with family or friends

[NCC1701A]

"and then we close the entire city of Pattaya to traffic and the capsule lands on Soi 6."

"Good thinking. Where did you work before the Thai space program?"

 

[Enoon]

1 hour ago, ChipButty said:

Back to the Drawing board

 

There never was a drawing board.

 

Announce, act, cock up, plan.

 

SOP in LOS.

 

 

[Number 6]

Yeah the funny thing about Pattaya is that absolutely no one will have ID for living on the beach side of sukhumvhit. Genius.

 

They could just let everyone in without checking ID. What does it matter? Ridiculous.

 

 

[smedly]

4 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

Thai space program

I know exactly what that is

 

clue "ears"

 

 

[Rimmer]

An off topic conspiricy troll post has been removed:

 

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[Kerryd]

Lol
"77kaoded said it was not just the traffic - each of the five checkpoints were struggling to interpret what ID was necessary to move in and out of the city."

What is so hard about that ? I've seen the (regular) police and the Immigration Police when they do a shift change. The incoming shift stands in formation and gets a briefing from the (commander/shift supervisor/whoever) and then they go do their jobs.

We knew a couple days in advance that we (foreigners) were supposed to have our passports and a "residence certificate" and a special form (with an English version already available) detailing who we are, where we are going and why.
All that should have been passed on to every oncoming shift for days before the barricades went up.

There shouldn't have been any confusion at all about the documents. I was hoping to find out what they were doing with that new form (looking at it, stamping it or keeping it when you went through a checkpoint) but the only person who reported going through a checkpoint said they never even checked him for documents at all !

Possibly they just didn't think there'd be as much traffic as there was and couldn't handle it without making the problem worse (by having to check and verify the documents of every single person trying to pass through).
And then there's the issue of what to do with the people that "forgot" one piece of paper or something and now they have to try and redirect that person back the way they came.

I think I'll put my mask on and go talk to my neighbour though I don't think his English is good enough to explain it to me.