Thailand pressing ahead with plan to open Phuket up to foreign tourists on July 1st despite Covid surge

[A1Str8]

It was closed?

[newnative]

Get all your health workers nationwide vaccinated first.  

[gravity101]

2 hours ago, sandyf said:

That is a bit optimistic. The factory is supposed to be ready in May but it has always been said that it would be into June before the first production had been distributed and ready for administration.

Coupled with the 12 weeks recommended wait time between doses for AZ. Not a single person will be vaccinated with these come July 1st.

[David T Pike]

Wave? What wave? They have no idea what a real covid breakout wave looks like.... January in the USA they had 300,000 new cases and day with 4,000 new deaths A DAY! Now that's a WAVE!!!! What they are experiencing is minute ripple....

[DiJoDavO]

But who would like to come? 

I'd like to go on a holiday too, but when I see how far one has to go to have a normal holiday, I won't bother. 

 

People abroad will see Phuket = Thailand, Thailand has covid now. So how can they be sure they will be allowed back home? 

 

What I mostly don't get is how, with at the time 300 cases or so, we have been told not to go anywhere and stay where we were. And now they are trying to get people from places where the number of people is x times that of Thailand and it's all ok. 

[Caldera]

A bit too early to revisit that decision.

 

In any case, if I was a foreign tourist reading about the reopening plans, this new wave would make me reluctant to book in advance. If they u-turn last-minute, that will be pretty damaging. 

[Charlie Halliday]

They really are living in cloud cuckoo land. Europeans will spend time holidaying either at home or in places like Portugal and Greece where travel bubbles have already been agreed. Who the hell would board a plane to Thailand reading the news about this latest outbreak! What a bunch on incompetent fools. 

[zzzzz]

2 hours ago, joecoolfrog said:

July in Phuket is nowhere near as busy as Jan and is most certainly NOT high season.

Hence , in normal years , hotel prices on the island are hugely discounted from June - September.

 

Edited April 26, 2021 by zzzzz

[Mayhem11]

When will you lot learn. Face masks hand sanitiser and social distancing is the key not testing or vaccination.

[berrec]

2 hours ago, Sheryl said:

 

Chile has not vaccinated all its population.

 

Less than 1/3 fully vaccinated and it exceeded 1/4 only a week ago.

 

Well known that protection from Sinovac does not set in until at least 14 days after 2nd dose. At which point it is about 50% effective. Which is lower than other vaccines, for sure. But not correct to state totally ineffective. Its effectiveness is much higher in preventing serious disease/death.

 

Sinovac went through Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials before used anywhere. The Chinese began using it prior to completion of Stage 3 trails.  Stage 3 trials have now been completed and it is these which give us the 50% efficacy rate.

 

 

[Mike Galley]

I am amazed ....neither Thai Embassy in Germany,nor consulates, nor any Thai officials in Germany know about this opening plans and tell me to wait with any Phuket plans.

Besides that Thai Airways has not in mind any more direct flights from Frankfurt to Phuket in june or july. This flight on may 7th is supposed to be the last one for the time being.

[Harry Fingerling]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

Thai DPM and commerce minister Jurin Laksanawisit told Daily News that despite the surge in Covid-19 cases there were no plans to U-turn on opening Phuket to foreign tourists in just over two months time.

Obviously this particular joker studied abroad at the going a bit mad in Helsinki. Clearly the official Propaganda officials from TAT have not been released yet from their straight jackets when a much needed BS story was needed.

[Mike Galley]

In addition and in short : 

no certificate of entry (coe)without ASQ hotel confirmation , whether 7 days with vaccine proof (2x) or 10 days without.

That's reality of immigration rule at the moment, ....nothing else.

[Fairynuff]

8 hours ago, Dialemco said:

Learn

See the mistake you made?

[Blaxland]

7 hours ago, malibukid said:

Americans who are vaccinated will be able to travel to the EU, why would they want to go to Thailand.

Dual pricing?Being made feel welcome?I could keep going!

[Miami007]

11 hours ago, PatOngo said:

Clown! When the entire population has been vaccinated, maybe then tourists will return, maybe!

Why would a vaccinated tourist care whether 100% or 50% or 25% of Phuket's population is vaccinated.  The tourist is already protected. The thing holding back people is the requirement to still have Covid insurance, several tests and other paperwork.  Or any quarantine when they fly back home

 

A very different question is whether a country will allow vaccinated tourists, if they believe that they can still transmit the virus to the resident population, which is not protected.  Latest research (and examples in UK, Israel) shows that vaccination prevents onward transmission, but not every country is accepting that fact.

 

Tourists will come when they are allowed to enter and return home without hassle and quarantines and as long as they feel personally protected.  If tourists were to really care about the destination, there would be fewer cigarette butts and other trash on beaches or the ocean

 

[Golden Triangle]

Welcome to Phuket, you come and holiday with us, we'll send you home in a casket ( coffin )

????

[taxin]

8 hours ago, digibum said:

The vaccination drive is all a show.  They’ll vaccinate all of the locals, declare victory, invite people to come back, and then quietly begin importing unvaccinated people to the island to staff the businesses.  

You are indeed 100% correct, the vaccination drive is all a show however, they will not be importing staff on the quiet, there is already a work force of Thais in Phuket who are ready & waiting to start work.
 

The arrival numbers in July (if it even goes ahead) simply won’t be high enough to need more workers.

[DrDave]

10 hours ago, jaiyen said:

And how are the long awaited tourists supposed to get to Phuket ?  No planes are flying from most of the countries, definitely none from Australia.  Thai Airways won't be flying for years, if ever again !

While that may be the case for flights from Australia, there are plenty of flights scheduled with connections in Asia, Europe and the Middle East that would be available for tourists originating in Asia, North America and Europe. It's yet to be seen however, if connections from BKK to HKT will  be allowed, and if so, how they'll be handled.

[kiwikeith]

17 hours ago, Forza2002 said:

The official population of Phuket is ~500K so that would mean that ~1M vaccines are required. Just giving people just 1 injection of Sonivac won't work, the efficacy is very low with just a single injection... ????

Just on RT news, legal action being taken against Astra Zenneca in France over transperency issues and a young persons death. 

And a politician who received Sinovac a few months ago is sick with the virus and has to isolate. 

Source RT news live. 

[kiwikeith]

7 hours ago, Miami007 said:

Why would a vaccinated tourist care whether 100% or 50% or 25% of Phuket's population is vaccinated.  The tourist is already protected. The thing holding back people is the requirement to still have Covid insurance, several tests and other paperwork.  Or any quarantine when they fly back home

 

A very different question is whether a country will allow vaccinated tourists, if they believe that they can still transmit the virus to the resident population, which is not protected.  Latest research (and examples in UK, Israel) shows that vaccination prevents onward transmission, but not every country is accepting that fact.

 

Tourists will come when they are allowed to enter and return home without hassle and quarantines and as long as they feel personally protected.  If tourists were to really care about the destination, there would be fewer cigarette butts and other trash on beaches or the ocean

 

That's it, in a nutshell, you can still contract the virus whilst vaccinated, and most Countries won't be letting people back in without quarantine, which won't be free if you left voluntarily. 

[ChipButty]

20 hours ago, WineOh said:

or in other words, not a single tourist from any country has expressed any interest whatsoever in goin to Phuket for a holiday.

I think you are wrong there, there is many tourist here in Phuket, we have a tourist in our condo at the moment he moves out this weekend and then we have a Russian tourist on Sunday for 2 months

Edited April 26, 2021 by ChipButty

[zzzzz]

1 hour ago, ChipButty said:

I think you are wrong there, there is many tourist here in Phuket, we have a tourist in our condo at the moment he moves out this weekend and then we have a Russian tourist on Sunday for 2 months

Many??  LOL
i was in central last Sunday, usually by 1 pm the parking lot is full.

this time barely 40%>
In Kamala, songkran week, some tourists, since last week, very very few...

[spidermike007]

The longer they wait, the harder it will be to restore the industry. People have short memories. Thailand was already being forgotten by millions, before Covid, due to a dozen reasons. Now? Too many alternatives. This administration continues to see Thailand as the COTU (center of the universe). Say it ain't so! No humility seem to be getting learned as of now. The army needs to figure out a way to muster up some courage, and re-open the nation to tourism. There are many ways it can be done safely, and there will be some risk, but nothing like the risk of not opening, and remaining sealed off from the world, like early 19th century Japan. Not even close.

 

If a tourist wanted to venture to an island destination, they are all devastated by this shutdown. Was recently on Samui. 85% of the hotels were closed. Most restaurants, alot of bars, shops and other businesses were closed, many permanently. Granted, there are some great hotel bargains right now. But, that environment is fairly depressing, seeing so much hardship. So, the lame authorities here need to wrap their minds around that. Tourists would be coming to a hugely diminished destination. Free testing? Might be a good place to start. Make some sacrifices, you incompetents.

 

These issues and problems were becoming apparent long before Covid. And none were being addressed. That is part of my point. Tourism had been declining for years already. The numbers were up. But the quality of tourist was way down. And according to everyone I spoke to last year, the year before and the year before that, income was way, way down. So, "this blame it all on Covid scenario" is somewhat disengenuous. Sure, Covid is huge. And the drop now is stunning. And are any of issies being addressed?

 

The whole "bring as many tourists as you possibly can" scenario was never sustainable anyway. Quantity over quality is never a good thing, unless you are selling one dollar items at a swap meet. It just lowers the quality of the experience for all.

 

There does not appear to be any end in sight for the Southern Islands. Domestic tourism has now been wrecked due to a very poor reaction by Anutin and the administration, with regard to the need for a total shutdown of Samut province, which happened far too late, after the latest outbreak. It was total and abysmal failure. Oh, can I go to prison for saying that? Prayuth is largely to blame for this, as he was obsessed with the optics of a lockdown, even if it was only one province. This has led to thousands of cases, the loss of millions more jobs, and an utter demolition of the domestic tourism industry. As far as international tourism goes, it is anyone's guess when that will start to revive, and how many years it will take to even get back to 20% of the former levels. I am guessing no more than 2 million tourists in 2022, and 5 to 8 million tourists annually, even four or five years from now.

 

They will never see 40 million tourists again. Not in our lifetimes. 

[ChipButty]

22 minutes ago, zzzzz said:

Many??  LOL
i was in central last Sunday, usually by 1 pm the parking lot is full.

this time barely 40%>
In Kamala, songkran week, some tourists, since last week, very very few...

I was in Central also last Sunday got there just before 11 am in the new place and the level where the entrance was full we had to go up 1 level and that was almost full.

Rawai is fairly busy the condo I mentioned going off the amount of cars and bikes and there is 3 car parks inside and quite a lot of cars parked outside on the road, I had to send an engineer to fix the fridge and he was told to park outside no room inside, 

I am also surprised as to were everybody come from I have seen a few people move from the north of the island to Rawai maybe cheaper property rents I dont know

[sandyf]

14 hours ago, gravity101 said:

Coupled with the 12 weeks recommended wait time between doses for AZ. Not a single person will be vaccinated with these come July 1st.

There is no 12 weeks recommended, that was a decision taken in the UK. The developers recommended 4 to 12 weeks and the UK took the view as many 1st jabs as possible before starting the 2nd. It would be in Thailand's interest to adopt the same policy, 1 x AZ gives better protection than 2 x Sinovac.

Unless there is a delay to production start there is no reason why some shouldn't have been administered by end of June. It is the best hope, way things are unlikely we will see any more AZ imported before then.

[sandyf]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

There does not appear to be any end in sight for the Southern Islands. Domestic tourism has now been wrecked due to a very poor reaction by Anutin and the administration,

'One man's waste is another man's fortune' as they say.

Around here business and the population has grown significantly since the pandemic started. And I do not mean tin shacks - housing developments, shopping malls, convenience stores, factories, car outlets, you name it.

[Bkk Brian]

51 minutes ago, sandyf said:

There is no 12 weeks recommended, that was a decision taken in the UK. The developers recommended 4 to 12 weeks and the UK took the view as many 1st jabs as possible before starting the 2nd. It would be in Thailand's interest to adopt the same policy, 1 x AZ gives better protection than 2 x Sinovac.

Unless there is a delay to production start there is no reason why some shouldn't have been administered by end of June. It is the best hope, way things are unlikely we will see any more AZ imported before then.

The developers recommended 4 to 12 weeks you say, that contradicts your first sentence where you said there is no 12 weeks recommended? That was an oversight by you?

 

Regardless there is evidence:

 

The trials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine did include different spacing between doses, finding that a longer gap (two to three months) led to a greater immune response https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n18

[BernieOnTour]

23 hours ago, jaiyen said:

And how are the long awaited tourists supposed to get to Phuket ?  No planes are flying from most of the countries, definitely none from Australia.  Thai Airways won't be flying for years, if ever again !

 

Forget your village-centric point of view - take a global view ????

 

China: ~ 18% of the world population 

Australia: ~ 0.3% of the world population 

 

????

Edited April 27, 2021 by BernieOnTour

[Abik]

19 hours ago, Sheryl said:

 

Chile has not vaccinated all its population.

 

Less than 1/3 fully vaccinated and it exceeded 1/4 only a week ago.

 

Well known that protection from Sinovac does not set in until at least 14 days after 2nd dose. At which point it is about 50% effective. Which is lower than other vaccines, for sure. But not correct to state totally ineffective. Its effectiveness is much higher in preventing serious disease/death.

 

Sinovac went through Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials before used anywhere. The Chinese began using it prior to completion of Stage 3 trails.  Stage 3 trials have now been completed and it is these which give us the 50% efficacy rate.

It is really a scandal to use a Chinese, Indian or European vaccine instead of a Pfizer or Moderna that is in high effectiveness and with not any side effects.

Stinginess and stupidity will cost the Thais dearly.