‘Vaccine passports’ could allow foreigners to visit Thailand without quarantine: TAT

[placnx]

4 hours ago, SomchaiCNX said:

This year I needed a tetanus and a rabies booster as they (my hospital) could not find the records. Asked them if I was up to date with my others but they could not answer that as well. While in the military I had a card that was carried on person and up to date with all injections and vaccines. Even a dog has his own small little book nowadays. Now I have nothing regarding vaccines, but a different book for blood thinners another for allergies and a blood donor card from the red cross. 

The new WHO vaccination card should accommodate all vaccinations. These should show on the physical card. Testing could be confined to the digital record.

[daejung]

12 hours ago, NorthernRyland said:

You can still be contagious right?

Nobody knows for now

[connda]

39 minutes ago, Poet said:

Resident foreigners will be expected to pay to get the vaccine privately and to present proof before receiving their next extension. By the time they introduce the rule, availability won't be a problem if you have the money.

Well, unless the expressly say that you need a specific vaccine from a specific company.  And they won't care if money is a problem or not. 

[placnx]

2 hours ago, SomchaiCNX said:

Thank you, I should do something like this but I'm not a huge smartphone user. ????

 

You are right. There needs to be a physical card that even someone in a remote village can have, where cell service is limited. But the card can be read through a QR code unique to the individual by health workers, immigration, etc.

[placnx]

1 hour ago, Netzero said:

Here is a novel idea for Novel Coronavirus....Thailand approve Moderna and Pfizer, allow private hospitals to buy and distribute to supplement the gov't initiative  with the Oxford vaccine, speed up the vaccination program and allow vaccinated travelers to enter without more than a 4 day quarantine and a negative COVID test. Just got back from Mae Hong Son - it is a ghost town like so many other places in Thailand - people are really suffering under the current government approach with no real vaccination effort in sight for months - a novel idea is needed now

It's wonderful to have more vaccines, but it will be quite a while until existing orders are filled. The reality is that world production capacity is quite insufficient. Bottlenecks!

[placnx]

35 minutes ago, ChouDoufu said:

 

cards

card readers

database

done.

 

it's not like we gotta reinvent the wheel.  credit cards, passports, id cards - the technology is already available.  you can even add blockchain if you wanna sound hip.

 

your card data will hold your personal information, date of initial vaccination and all boosters, vaccine version, manufacturer, lot number, facility giving the injections...scanned into the system from the barcodes on the vials.

 

the who can maintain the database with the various vaccines using information supplied by the manufacturers. 

Yes, I posted about the data to enter back in a discussion around September. Also, my idea about blockchain was to ensure that distribution would be transparent, that vaccines were likely authentic. The databases should be national. A physical card would be better than the high tech plastic since it could function better in a low tech environment. This is a pandemic.

[Thomas J]

14 hours ago, webfact said:

Foreigners who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 could be allowed to visit Thailand without the need to quarantine, according to new proposals from the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

I had no doubt that Thailand officials having all the financial resources of the government, all the best world experts, all the medical specialists in the world, matched with the intelligence of the elected leaders would gather all the facts, get numerous ideas to spur the economy submitted and after careful and and exhaustive study implement a reasonable policy.  That is after they tried and failed with all other methods that had absolutely no chance of increasing tourism and re-igniting the economy.  That is with the possible exception of the Cannibis food selection for foreigners. 

[FarFlungFalang]

31 minutes ago, connda said:

Well, unless the expressly say that you need a specific vaccine from a specific company.  And they won't care if money is a problem or not. 

I can imagine all the different officers and offices requiring certain vaccines from certain companies depending on what day and what office and what officer and the brown envelope being required for the fast track option.

[Poet]

49 minutes ago, connda said:

Well, unless the expressly say that you need a specific vaccine from a specific company.  And they won't care if money is a problem or not. 

The Thai private hospitals are hoping that the fat profits they will make adminstering these effectively mandatory vaccines will help make up some of the losses they experienced during the halt in medical tourism. They will have made their wishes clear to the government ministers responsible for creating these rules. Mercedes clear.

Expect many such new expenses as life starts pumping into the system once again.

 

Edited January 27, 2021 by Poet

[mogandave]

3 hours ago, dash said:

For people who want to travel but have to wait until ...to get the innoculation becaus they are not in the acutual selection. Most over 85 who get now vaccinated do not travel a lot.

 

For people that can’t wait a couple months?

[mogandave]

1 hour ago, ChouDoufu said:

 

anti-vaxxers and science-deniers who want to travel without infringing on their right to potentially cause the deaths of countless others will need the fake certificate.  for freedom.

 

Pretty small target market...

[BlackArtemis]

Yes please. I was supposed to move back to CNX last summer but decided not to sell my house and stayed at my job here for another year in the US. I'll have my vaccine shortly. It would be nice to be able to move back this summer after the school year ends here. I was always willing to jump through some hoops, but I wasn't going to drop 50kBaht+ to stay at a "resort" charging 150b+ for fried rice. 

[chilli42]

14 hours ago, luk AJ said:

 

can you please share the source that vaccinated people may still present a risk of transmission?

Even a cursory Google search will tell you all you need to know, from authoritative sources, about virus transmission by those who have been vaccinated.  The fact is they don’t know one way or the other as there has been no testing of transmission by those vaccinated.  A fair tradeoff to get the vaccine rushed through the regulatory process.  Given the seriousness of the disease it’s best to play it safe.

[Thomas Hannah]

4 hours ago, FarFlungFalang said:

If 127,000 didn't catch it without the vaccine 1,000 would have caught it which is a lot higher than the 20 that caught it with the vaccine. I did make and error in my post the control group was compared to the current national prevalence of 0.65%.

OK.i made a mistake i should have said.127,980.now what is your answer.?

[Raphus]

There is still no scientific proof yet, that a vaccinated person could still pass on the virus. It is still too early to have conclusive scientific proof.

Therefore, this could be dropped or reversed when the proof is published.

[provan69]

There was no mention of Australian or New Zealand in there where there is virtually no or very little Covid19, USA and Europe where it is ripe only.

 

[tgw]

1 hour ago, VBF said:

Still got mine (book, that is, not YF) - until I looked at it recently I'd forgotten just how many vacs I'd had in the 70s / 80s. Add to that the ones I had as a kid, and I'm baffled by anti-vaxxers!

 

yes, I still have that yellow booklet by the WHO somewhere too

[scorecard]

15 hours ago, Tropicalevo said:

There is that magic word again.

Agree, ultimately reducing/cancelling quarantine is great but I fear this article/proposal is based on dreams of commercial gains rather than on any science.

 

Given that most/all current repat. flights into Thailand (and all other countries) include several* passengers who test positive on arrival or on the first test in quarantine I doubt there will be any changes in quarantine requirements in the near future. How would scheduled normal international incoming flights be any different.

 

(* many repat. flights into Thailand have from 1 to 6, 7, 8 passengers who test positive, about 2 weeks ago one flight has 12 positive passengers.)

        

[Dagfinnur Traustason]

It´s really good that they print IMMUNE on the book. Is there anyone that can comfirm that?

[Tonypandy]

16 hours ago, webfact said:

‘Vaccine passports’ could allow foreigners to visit Thailand without quarantine: TAT

 

File photo: Travel Daily (for reference only)
 

Foreigners who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 could be allowed to visit Thailand without the need to quarantine, according to new proposals from the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

 

The tourism authority says so-called ‘vaccine passports’ would enable foreign tourists to stay in Thailand without needing to spend the first 14 days of their trip in an alternative state quarantine facility.

 

The ‘vaccine passports’ are one of a number of ideas mooted by TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn in a bid to revive the country’s decimate tourism industry, which faces the prospect of one million workers left unemployed as a result of the pandemic. 

 

Mr Supasorn said under the proposals, vaccinated tourists from the United States and Europe could start arriving in Thailand as early as March or April, with a focus on what  would be the Easter holidays in Europe. 

 

Tourists from China, Japan and South Korea would arrive later once restrictions on all but necessary travel had been lifted by the governments in those countries, he told Thairath.

 

Mr Supasorn said that if the ‘vaccine passports’ get the approval he would expect 10 million tourists to visit the country in 2021.

 

Mr Supasorn added that TAT have already entered discussions with Emirates Airlines and Qatar Airways about offering tourists all inclusive packages. While details were not specified, it is presumed that the packages would enable vaccinated foreigners to travel to Thailand without restrictions or the need to enter quarantine.

 

TAT will also ask the tourism authorities in other ASEAN countries to adopt the ‘vaccine  passport’ model in order to stimulate tourism across the region.

 

The news comes as two of Thailand’s largest hotel operators have urged the government to cancel the current Covid-19-quarantine rules for vaccinated visitors in a bid to revive the country’s tourism industry.

 

Speaking to the Financial Times [paywall] William Heinecke, chairman of Thailand’s largest hotel group, Minor International, said: "There are tremendous numbers of people who won’t come to Thailand, or won’t come to any country that has a quarantine, because it takes too much time.

 

“We should be very quickly allowing people who are safely vaccinated to travel without quarantine.”

 

Meanwhile, Dusit International CEO Suphajee Suthumpun said: “The current quarantine restrictions are crippling our industry and having a massive impact on Thailand’s economy. With foreign tourists accounting for around 70% of the total industry, and with tourism representing around 22% of GDP, it’s clear that we need to open the borders to vaccinated travellers as soon as possible.”

 

Suthumpun said that people working in the hospitality sector should be given the vaccine as a priority in order to help protect locals and foreigners by limiting the risk of infection.]

 

Thailand, which normally welcomes around 40 million tourists, saw tourist arrivals fall by  90 percent in 2020.

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2021-01-27

 

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Do you really think that tourists who have been vaccinated would choose a country to holiday where thier people remain unvaccinated? 

[Salerno]

Why not?

[Salerno]

9 minutes ago, Dagfinnur Traustason said:

It´s really good that they print IMMUNE on the book. Is there anyone that can comfirm that?

 

I think it's just a mockup.

[InevitableCost]

Taking an untested vaccine that has already been documented to kill several people and Hank Aaron hmmm doesn't seem worth it. If quarantining for 2 weeks is still an option ill do that as long as im able to stay in Thailand for at least 3 months.

[ChouDoufu]

9 minutes ago, Dagfinnur Traustason said:

It´s really good that they print IMMUNE on the book. Is there anyone that can comfirm that?

 

i don't think the "immune passport" in the pitcher is real.  just a photoshopped mockup prepared for an report about the israeli "green passport," copy-n-pasted into this article.

 

The World may soon re-open again for Green Passport Holders

https://www.traveldailymedia.com/the-world-may-soon-re-open-again-for-green-passport-holders/

[Dagfinnur Traustason]

22 minutes ago, Salerno said:

 

I think it's just a mockup.

 

15 minutes ago, ChouDoufu said:

 

i don't think the "immune passport" in the pitcher is real.  just a photoshopped mockup prepared for an report about the israeli "green passport," copy-n-pasted into this article.

 

The World may soon re-open again for Green Passport Holders

https://www.traveldailymedia.com/the-world-may-soon-re-open-again-for-green-passport-holders/

 

And we still know what the word means. Can somebody comfirm that the Covid vaccine gives immunity? If not, it´s useless to use the word. Mockup or not!

Edited January 27, 2021 by Dagfinnur Traustason

[Blumpie]

24 minutes ago, Tonypandy said:

Do you really think that tourists who have been vaccinated would choose a country to holiday where thier people remain unvaccinated? 

Of course not.

The thing that anyone should be concerned of is:  Will the pandemic get out of control.  If so, the health care system, all systems, will surely fail.  

That is why Thailand is locked down so hard and countries all around the earth.

In order to get tourism back there is no question the general population should be vaccinated.  

[ChouDoufu]

12 minutes ago, Dagfinnur Traustason said:

 

 

And we still know what the word means. Can somebody comfirm that the Covid vaccine gives immunity? If not, it´s useless to use the word. Mockup or not!

 

if you'll notice, the word "immune" itself does not appear in either the op or the article by traveldaily that seems to be the origin of the photo.

 

even the op states "File photo: Travel Daily (for reference only)"

 

no government officials, no reporters, no editors used the word "immune."  the passport photo doesn't appear to come from any government office.

 

blame the intern in the traveldaily graphics department for making a cool but fictitious covid passport illustration.

[windas]

Hi friends 

What about "More haste, less speed"

 

Things taken carefully and thought through will always get us the best 

solution to the problems

 

The TAT man farts in the wind.

 

 

 

[Don Chance]

This will work but on arrival to Thailand you will all need anal swabs!!

[rabang]

10 hours ago, TSF said:

Not so sure I'd believe what a local travel agent said. How long does a holiday package last? A few days to a few weeks, so 2 weeks Q in Thailand, and more than likely 2 weeks Q when you fly back home. For what? Just to sit under a coconut tree? Add running the risk of contracting covid inside an airplane or at an airport, plus the visa/permission, covid tests/insurance costs...then if there's a major outbreak of a new strain you risk being caught in a lockdown, unable to return home to your job & family, so you find yourself stuck in a foreign country. And at the present time Thailand is not particularly a nice destination with many bars/restaurants/shops/businesses shut, and long lines of Thais for handouts, plus rising xenophobia (been reports of foreigners not allowed on buses & trains).

 

I was talking about next winter, a year from now. If people are vaccinated they shouldn't have to worry about travelling. Obviously quarantines would have to be dropped. But my point was if things normalize many people would be willing to travel.

Edited January 27, 2021 by rabang