Expats getting a Covid-19 vaccine in Pattaya for dummies with emphasis on expats outside the Thai system

[Harry2]

Wave. The only instance I have seen Chonburi registration reported was in the CCSA statement reported in that thread. I frankly have more faith/hope in a local effort rather than the deeply flawed national shambles. Best of all would be if they left it to hospitals like BHP to organise, but that is probably too much to hope for.

[Guderian]

Too late again!

Fed up with the Intervac shambles and the private hospitals here behaving like ostriches, I thought I'd try registering for the Moderna vaccine in October with Thonburi hospital. After all, the way the public rollout is going we'll probably still be trying to register for a free Sinovac jab come October. You have to register via LINE so I scanned the QR code and made friends with them, but it seems that this afternoon they announced they will no longer be accepting new registrations for 'alternative vaccines'.

Oh well, the best-laid plans of mice and men, and all that.

[Jingthing]

5 hours ago, Harry2 said:

Wave. The only instance I have seen Chonburi registration reported was in the CCSA statement reported in that thread. I frankly have more faith/hope in a local effort rather than the deeply flawed national shambles. Best of all would be if they left it to hospitals like BHP to organise, but that is probably too much to hope for.

Sure thing but I see no evidence that this local system is actually going to happen. May as well believe in the tooth fairy.

[Harry2]

51 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Sure thing but I see no evidence that this local system is actually going to happen. May as well believe in the tooth fairy.

Now the CCSA has announced it will happen, that will surely be a pressure to get something moving on this front. The Pattaya sandbox is even further behind than Chiang Mai or Phuket, they have to start somewhere with their large expat population. Registration is a first step, actually getting allocations of vaccines seems to be where Chonburi/Pattaya has fallen behind both Phuket & Chiang Mai. I actually got an appointment for end June via thaintervac but now the ''''system''' does not recognise my account, so in reality I have nothing. My hope/attention now turns back to Chonburi where the local business community (with way more clout than us) is now publicly saying without vaccines forget the 2021 high season & think about 2022.

[Jingthing]

12 minutes ago, Harry2 said:

Now the CCSA has announced it will happen, that will surely be a pressure to get something moving on this front. The Pattaya sandbox is even further behind than Chiang Mai or Phuket, they have to start somewhere with their large expat population. Registration is a first step, actually getting allocations of vaccines seems to be where Chonburi/Pattaya has fallen behind both Phuket & Chiang Mai. I actually got an appointment for end June via thaintervac but now the ''''system''' does not recognise my account, so in reality I have nothing. My hope/attention now turns back to Chonburi where the local business community (with way more clout than us) is now publicly saying without vaccines forget the 2021 high season & think about 2022.

CCSA previously announced that hospitals across the country would be included in intervac in their favorite phrase -- in due course. Sorry, at this point, I really can't believe anything we're being told about what's GOING to happen unless and until it ACTUALLY happens. 

Edited June 15, 2021 by Jingthing

[WaveHunter]

17 hours ago, Jingthing said:

CCSA previously announced that hospitals across the country would be included in intervac in their favorite phrase -- in due course. Sorry, at this point, I really can't believe anything we're being told about what's GOING to happen unless and until it ACTUALLY happens. 

As I said before, and I'll say again, there is no doubt in my mind now that foreigners are being played in this whole vaccine registration for foreigners scheme.

 

Maybe I'm wrong but it's really hard to imagine that so many screw-ups could just be accidental:

• The in-person registration scheme
• The MorProm registration scheme
• The Intervac site scheme
• And now the Intervac/expat site scheme.

In essence, it is the old Donkey and Carrot ploy which is just really shameful!

 

 

Everybody's best bet right now is to be sure and register with a private hospital for vaccination with Moderna. 

 

I mean, It's beginning to look like we could actually be vaccinated earlier by a private hospital than we may be able to through the public rollout.

 

Edited June 16, 2021 by WaveHunter

[ivor bigun]

All i can say is thank god for the pink card ,without it goodness knows when i would have got a vacination . 

[Jingthing]

54 minutes ago, WaveHunter said:

As I said before, and I'll say again, there is no doubt in my mind now that foreigners are being played in this whole vaccine registration for foreigners scheme.

 

Maybe I'm wrong but it's really hard to imagine that so many screw-ups could just be accidental:

• The in-person registration scheme
• The MorProm registration scheme
• The Intervac site scheme
• And now the Intervac/expat site scheme.

In essence, it is the old Donkey and Carrot ploy which is just really shameful!

 

 

Everybody's best bet right now is to be sure and register with a private hospital for vaccination with Moderna. 

 

I mean, It's beginning to look like we could actually be vaccinated earlier by a private hospital than we may be able to through the public rollout.

 

Well, the effect is definitely that we're up the creek without a paddle. However, I'm not at the level of knowing all of the reasons and motivations for this total excrement show. It would be funny if it is wasn't real.  Is it possible that the intentions aren't as bad as you suggest but rather it's a just a series of unfortunate events?

Edited June 16, 2021 by Jingthing

[WaveHunter]

16 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Well, the effect is definitely that we're being played. I'm not at the level of knowing all of the reasons and motivations for this total excrement show. Is it possible that the intentions aren't as bad as you suggest and it's a just a series of unfortunate events?

It's just curious to me that the registration schemes all started practically overnight after the huge expat meltdown over government rollout announcements that expats interpreted as discriminatory towards them.

 

It seems like it was a haphazard and feverish PR strategy to quell expat discontent rather than an actual working plan to register expats.

 

I mean, when you look at how poorly constructed the online registration sites have been, a grade school kid could have done a better job. 

 

And when the CCSA Spokesman continually offers only vague details or is evasive, like never providing a simple list of all hospitals designated for the foreigner rollout, it just starts to sound a little odd. 

Edited June 16, 2021 by WaveHunter

[Jingthing]

1 minute ago, WaveHunter said:

It's just curious to me that the registration schemes all started practically overnight after the huge expat meltdown over government rollout announcements that expats interpreted as discriminatory towards them.

 

It seems like it was a haphazard and feverish PR strategy to quell expat discontent rather than an actual working plan to register expats.

Yeah, I totally understand your suspicion. It's also a way for the embassies that are not helping us to say, just follow the plan, the Thais are taking care of you with online registrations, yeah they are!

[WaveHunter]

7 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Yeah, I totally understand your suspicion. It's also a way for the embassies that are not helping us to say, just follow the plan, the Thais are taking care of you with online registrations, yeah they are!

Well as far as the US Embassy goes, they're sticking to their guns and refusing to reply to my emails with anything more than canned responses stating that we must rely on a foreign government for help.  It seems that my own government has less interest in protecting their citizens living overseas than the French do.  That's pretty sad. ????

 

Edited June 16, 2021 by WaveHunter

[Guderian]

4 hours ago, WaveHunter said:

Everybody's best bet right now is to be sure and register with a private hospital for vaccination with Moderna. 

 

And which private hospital would that be then?

The only one I was aware of offering it was Thonburi but, as I pointed out yesterday, they've stopped taking new applications.

If you know of another one, especially a hospital here in the Chonburi area, then please do let us know.

[WaveHunter]

23 minutes ago, Guderian said:

 

And which private hospital would that be then?

The only one I was aware of offering it was Thonburi but, as I pointed out yesterday, they've stopped taking new applications.

If you know of another one, especially a hospital here in the Chonburi area, then please do let us know.

I've been discussing it like crazy in this thread ????  Pattaya Memorial Hospital.  Call them to get instructions on registering by email.  I could give you the email address but it's better you talk to a live person there first which is what I did, and I had no problems registering.  Some tried to do it just by sending an email and said they never got a reply...so, give them a call.  They have English speaking staff that are friendly and efficient at helping you.

 

[Harry2]

This sentence was included in a vaccine update email today from the British Embassy, whether it has any meaning, well??

 

Pattaya

The Ministry Of Public Health have stated they are in talks with hospitals in Pattaya on how they can open vaccine registration.

[Jingthing]

53 minutes ago, Harry2 said:

This sentence was included in a vaccine update email today from the British Embassy, whether it has any meaning, well??

 

Pattaya

The Ministry Of Public Health have stated they are in talks with hospitals in Pattaya on how they can open vaccine registration.

It's way too vague to mean anything. Which hospitals? When to start? Public program or profit program? Expat specific effort or expats excluded?

[Harry2]

Just now, Jingthing said:

It's way too vague to mean anything. Which hospitals? When to start? Public program or profit program? Expat specific effort or expats excluded?

Well it was included by the embassy so it would be fair to assume it is aimed at expats. I agree with others that the treatment of expats has been a shambles, but that doesn't mean we won't get vaccinated at some stage. We know Chonburi aspires to 'sandbox' status and that implies, that eventually Pattaya/Chonburi will receive a preferential allotment like Phuket & other sandbox areas (Chiang Mai has begun a well organised registration).

 

Their sandbox plans seem to span a period August- October & they know they need to get a high % vaccinated before they can re-open. So of course we don't know exactly 'when' but it will come & we are seeing a rise in official mentions as above, that implies the process will commence reasonably soon - July? 

[Jingthing]

2 minutes ago, Harry2 said:

Well it was included by the embassy so it would be fair to assume it is aimed at expats. I agree with others that the treatment of expats has been a shambles, but that doesn't mean we won't get vaccinated at some stage. We know Chonburi aspires to 'sandbox' status and that implies, that eventually Pattaya/Chonburi will receive a preferential allotment like Phuket & other sandbox areas (Chiang Mai has begun a well organised registration).

 

Their sandbox plans seem to span a period August- October & they know they need to get a high % vaccinated before they can re-open. So of course we don't know exactly 'when' but it will come & we are seeing a rise in official mentions as above, that implies the process will commence reasonably soon - July? 

Hope springs eternal. 

[WaveHunter]

27 minutes ago, Harry2 said:

Well it was included by the embassy so it would be fair to assume it is aimed at expats. I agree with others that the treatment of expats has been a shambles, but that doesn't mean we won't get vaccinated at some stage. We know Chonburi aspires to 'sandbox' status and that implies, that eventually Pattaya/Chonburi will receive a preferential allotment like Phuket & other sandbox areas (Chiang Mai has begun a well organised registration).

 

Their sandbox plans seem to span a period August- October & they know they need to get a high % vaccinated before they can re-open. So of course we don't know exactly 'when' but it will come & we are seeing a rise in official mentions as above, that implies the process will commence reasonably soon - July? 

With respect to "opening to tourism", what their target date is and what the actual date will be are two different things entirely of course. 

 

In Phuket it's supposed to be July 1st, and Chiang Mai has set August 1st.   

 

Both dates seem very optimistic, but I'm guessing Thai officials are diverting a lot of resources (vaccines) from other provinces to Phuket and probably to Chiang Mai as well since, from a PR standpoint, and for economic reasons, it would be a disaster for these prime tourism centers to fail opening as planned.

 

It will be interesting to see what happens.  If it goes well in both, perhaps Chonburi will be next in line for the Sandbox treatment.  One can only hope ????

 

Edited June 16, 2021 by WaveHunter

[jacko45k]

19 hours ago, WaveHunter said:

As I said before, and I'll say again, there is no doubt in my mind now that foreigners are being played in this whole vaccine registration for foreigners scheme.

 

Maybe I'm wrong but it's really hard to imagine that so many screw-ups could just be accidental:

Oh I think it can...... it is like the digging of a hole in the road....it gets done 3 or 4 times and usually involves a few people getting injured driving into unmarked holes. It is that sense of nobody being responsible or culpable. 

[Guderian]

Pattaya orders 100,000 doses of Sinopharm. I gather that this vaccine is noticably better than the Sinovac (79% efficacy vs. ~50%), but sadly it seems that foreigners are either not included in the plans for this batch or else are way down at the bottom of the waiting list (see that word "eventually").

 

"The Mayor did not specifically address foreigners interested in registering for a vaccine but has previously noted that all foreign residents would be eligible to “eventually” register for a vaccine. The vaccine registration program in Chonburi is currently primarily centered on Thai nationals over the age of sixty or those with certain health conditions in several categories that could cause complications if they caught Covid-19. The current vaccination program is based on house registration in Pattaya although may be opened wider in the near future according to the Mayor."

 

The full article is here:

 

https://thepattayanews.com/2021/06/16/pattaya-independently-orders-100000-doses-of-the-sinopharm-covid-19-vaccine-to-expediate-pattaya-vaccination-campaign/

 

[Jingthing]

1 hour ago, Guderian said:

Pattaya orders 100,000 doses of Sinopharm. I gather that this vaccine is noticably better than the Sinovac (79% efficacy vs. ~50%), but sadly it seems that foreigners are either not included in the plans for this batch or else are way down at the bottom of the waiting list (see that word "eventually").

 

"The Mayor did not specifically address foreigners interested in registering for a vaccine but has previously noted that all foreign residents would be eligible to “eventually” register for a vaccine. The vaccine registration program in Chonburi is currently primarily centered on Thai nationals over the age of sixty or those with certain health conditions in several categories that could cause complications if they caught Covid-19. The current vaccination program is based on house registration in Pattaya although may be opened wider in the near future according to the Mayor."

 

The full article is here:

 

https://thepattayanews.com/2021/06/16/pattaya-independently-orders-100000-doses-of-the-sinopharm-covid-19-vaccine-to-expediate-pattaya-vaccination-campaign/

 

Wow.

Expat owned businesses at the forefront of food aid for Thais.

Expat residents propping up the remaining businesses in the tourism zone.

Most of them in high risk groups. 

Eventually?

Thanks so much Mayor. 

Edited June 17, 2021 by Jingthing

[WaveHunter]

So, are both InterVac sites now just a fond memory like all the other registration schemes have proved to be? 

 

Both homepages seem to have only been static pages this week with no way to interact with them. 

 

I wonder what the next registration scheme will look like? 

 

Perhaps it will be a gaming app since they seem to like playing games with us so much. 

 

Maybe the person with the highest number of unsuccessful registration attempts will win a cookie.

 

Edited June 17, 2021 by WaveHunter

[jacko45k]

17 hours ago, WaveHunter said:

I wonder what the next registration scheme will look like?

Well if it asks you to send money I would steer well clear!

[Guderian]

3 hours ago, jacko45k said:

Well if it asks you to send money I would steer well clear!

 

I'm beginning to think that even asking for your passport number and DOB is too much risk given how incompetent their web designers seem to be!

[WaveHunter]

FYI...if you registered for a Moderna vaccination with Pattaya Memorial Hospital (which I did 2 weeks ago), I just received a text message from them.

 

It says I must visit the hospital in person before 25 June to register in person and pay for both doses in advance and in cash (4,000 THB) and to expect the first jab sometime in October...maybe.

 

Both the public and private rollout route are now just becoming such a waste of time & energy.  Going back home and doing it there is starting to sound better and better every damn day! ????

 

 

Edited June 18, 2021 by WaveHunter

[rott]

Just to maintain some context and perspective the overwhelming majority of Thais have yet to receive any vaccine either. 

Whether this will still be the case in October remains to be seen. 

[Jingthing]

47 minutes ago, rott said:

Just to maintain some context and perspective the overwhelming majority of Thais have yet to receive any vaccine either. 

Whether this will still be the case in October remains to be seen. 

Yes but the high risk Thais are in the earlier stage priority group so it would be misleading to suggest that expats are being treated equally. 

[rott]

30 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Yes but the high risk Thais are in the earlier stage priority group so it would be misleading to suggest that expats are being treated equally. 

No doubt you are correct Jingo, I thought that I was careful not to suggest such a thing. If I did I apologise. 

[Guderian]

As a foretaste of what we might expect in Pattaya, it seems in spite of the government trumpeting that 62% of the local population has been vaccinated in Phuket, registration for retired expats only opened two days ago, so how knows when they'll get their shots. Apparently quite a few expat business owners have been vaccinated, but no other farangs. And, of course, the local foreign migrant workers aren't included in the numbers. The "local population" means, as it will in Pattaya, Thai people registered as living there. And there's less than two weeks to go before the sandbox opens, supposedly.

[scubascuba3]

42 minutes ago, Guderian said:

As a foretaste of what we might expect in Pattaya, it seems in spite of the government trumpeting that 62% of the local population has been vaccinated in Phuket, registration for retired expats only opened two days ago, so how knows when they'll get their shots. Apparently quite a few expat business owners have been vaccinated, but no other farangs. And, of course, the local foreign migrant workers aren't included in the numbers. The "local population" means, as it will in Pattaya, Thai people registered as living there. And there's less than two weeks to go before the sandbox opens, supposedly.

the unvaccinated farang will be sitting ducks when the tourists start arriving