Foreign residents WILL be included in COVID-19 vaccination program: CCSA

[Scouse123]

13 hours ago, friendofthai said:

Of course it is not easy to vaccinate a foreigner. When a foreigner come to a vaccination room, he want to get vaccinated very much. But after that the second personality of a foreigner suddenly appears. The alter ego of the foreigner starts arguing with the doctor. He tells the doctor that Sinovac is a very bad vaccine and he also demonstrates "proofs" from "credible news sources" to the doctor. So the mental hospital stuff and expensive equipment are needed in these cases in order to complete the vaccination process.

 

Are you on medication?

[RichardColeman]

13 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

but the Thai government’s first priority is to vaccinate all frontline medical personnel, the elderly, those with underlying health conditions and those living within high risk zones.

.....those not living in high risk zones, immigrant workers, Thai owners dogs and cats, the immigrant workers dogs, monkeys, soi dogs and farang retirees 

[Rampant Rabbit]

10 hours ago, Smokegreynblues said:

Foreigners come in so many categories:-

Foreigners with Social security card

Foreigners with Private insurance

Foreigners with work Group insurance

Foreigners UNDER MOU with neighboring countries+ Pink card

Foreigners as bonafide tourists with 1m dollar covid insurance

Foreigners as retirees

Foreigners with PR 

Foreigners on emergency covid extensions

Foreigners as dependents not included in any of the above. 

They should specify "WHICH" Category of foreigner

All are people  all can spread  covid.

[ukrules]

If I'm offered a Chinese vaccine they're not going to like what they hear when I respond and I certainly won't be holding back.

[webfact]

COVID-19 Vaccination for Expats, Foreign Diplomats

 

 

NONTHABURI, May 6 (TNA) – The Department of Disease Control prepares a special clinic for COVID-19 vaccination for expatriates and foreign diplomats at Bangrak Building.

 

Dr Opas Karnkawinpong, director-general of the department, said the government planned to develop herd immunity in the country by inoculating 70% of people living in Thailand against COVID-19 and expatriates were included right from the start.

 

Regarding the vaccination plan, the government took into consideration 67 million Thais and 3 million foreigners living in the country and thus intended to procure 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, he said.

 

The vaccination for foreigners would happen at Bangrak Building because it was near embassies and had convenient access to transport services and there were many expatriates, Dr Opas said. Embassies would procure the vaccines of their choices for their own staff and the Public Health Ministry would have nothing to do with their vaccine acquisition, he said.

 

Expatriates could seek documents from their embassies, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration or provincial health offices to prove their long stay in the country and then seek the vaccination, Dr Opas said. (TNA)

 

Source: https://tna.mcot.net/english-news-691182

 

-- © Copyright TNA 2021-05-07

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

[Brierley]

Great, but what about the expats in the rest of the country? And please don't tell me we're going to have to visit our Embassies in order to prove we're long stay residents, don't we already have enough proof of that from the Thai system?  Driving license, pink card, tabien bahn, passport and visa stamp, TM28, 90 day certificate etc etc! 

[Fromas]

Perhaps this arrangement is mainly intended for diplomatic staff and auxiliaries.

 

 

Edited May 6, 2021 by Fromas

[brucegoniners]

How white of them...

 

I don't want their lousy vaccines anyway. I'll get my own.

 

You can't count on this government for anything, especially if you're a foreigner.

[Destiny1990]

welcome na and we have a special price for your vaccine. ????

[miamiman123]

Foreigners are going to get the jab? Yes No Maybe???

yep a “mobile app” will solve the problem . 
JC, where do they get these people? 

[ikke1959]

again paperwork, copies etc .. Thailand can do it without

[Skeptic7]

17 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

Will this get reversed tomorrow?

Yes...OR it is just same ol' Thai style lip service and will be the last heard of it. 

[Bkk Brian]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Expatriates could seek documents from their embassies, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration or provincial health offices to prove their long stay in the country and then seek the vaccination, Dr Opas said. (TNA) 

 

The vaccination for foreigners would happen at Bangrak Building because it was near embassies and had convenient access to transport services and there were many expatriates, Dr Opas said.

Did all the embassies actually agree to this already before he starts announcing this publicly? 

 

All he's done here is sow more confusion

[starky]

16 hours ago, WineOh said:

save your 'humble pie.'

 

Tomorrow it will be reversed. 

I'm willing to wager that not a single expat I know, myself included, will wind up receiving a free jab in the land of smiles. 

How much? I'd be in for some of that action

[TheFishman1]

Confusing Thailand TIT

[inThailand]

Foreign residents WILL be included in COVID-19 vaccination program: CCSA

 

Of course no mention of price gouges of said expats? 

 

This government flips over more than my old gf. 

Edited May 7, 2021 by inThailand

[Artisi]

17 hours ago, Crossy said:

For Flip-flop's Sake guys.

 

At least get your story straight!

 

 

It is straight, it's just that foreigners don't understand the subtlety and nuances of Thai flip -flop, of course most times neither do the Thais'. 

[Artisi]

2 hours ago, Brierley said:

Great, but what about the expats in the rest of the country? And please don't tell me we're going to have to visit our Embassies in order to prove we're long stay residents, don't we already have enough proof of that from the Thai system?  Driving license, pink card, tabien bahn, passport and visa stamp, TM28, 90 day certificate etc etc! 

Solly, not hab record in health department, others no good? 

[lks7689]

13 hours ago, ukrules said:

 

I guess they decided against purchasing / importing the first 20 to 30 million doses as was widely reported last year and went for the cheap option instead.

 

The current situation being the result of that decision.

 

They are not the only country lagging behind. There are certain criteria for the prioritization of delivery from vaccine makers and only rich countries would have made the downpayment(before trial and testing stage) needed. I don't see the Thai government being capable of making those decisions at such early stage of the pandemic when they were relatively few cases. Malaysia is facing a similar situation. They are simply too late in the game. Singapore set aside $1 billion for a population of 5 million and even now only 2.2million doses has been administered. 

[Brierley]

1 minute ago, Artisi said:

Solly, not hab record in health department, others no good? 

A part of the problem is corruption. If it wasn't so rife here there wouldn't be the need for all this triple checking and quadruple verification to ensure somebody in the system wasn't really nicking the vaccine and selling it on. Everyone is paranoid about they might be accused and wants to cover their bippies. Regardless of those things, somebody somewhere will already be making plans how to do just that.

[vandeventer]

They are finding out that most Thai's don't want these cheap vaccines. And all vaccines have a use by date so selling them to us is the only way to save face.

[FarFlungFalang]

22 minutes ago, Artisi said:

It is straight, it's just that foreigners don't understand the subtlety and nuances of Thai flip -flop, of course most times neither do the Thais'. 

Nuances of Thai flip-flop:put the rising tone on the flip and falling tone on the flop!

[Ian C HH]

It’s normal for Our TV front liners to attack any piece of news within two seconds of publication but my take on this PUBLIC BROADCAST is that 

-. It’s in response to some very public criticism Thai policy on Farang vaccination has received - a good thing surely? 
- this policy ( prioritization of risk groups regardless of nationality) is absolutely logical and sound and in fact has been followed by many other governments around the world WITHOUT TV front liners derision and 

- IF enacted as articulated by the lovely lady spokesman quickly it will do exactly what those same front liners have been begging for since the pandemic began. 
 

okay, so it’s late, slow and reactive rather than proactive. Okay so you may have to pay 4000thb to jump a queue, but is there anyone out there who doesn’t value their lives more than 4000thb? 
 

id rather be positive ( boosting my immune system) than immediately attack this latest attempt to reassure the international community. After all we have the choice for f either a month of caustic cynicism or a month of optimism to find out if the Govt is genuine or not. 
 

if the former I’d love to see our front liners apologise, but that would never happen on TV forum, if the latter there’ll surely be the usual caustic ranting and raving. 
 

[ThailandRyan]

2 minutes ago, vandeventer said:

They are finding out that most Thai's don't want these cheap vaccines. And all vaccines have a use by date so selling them to us is the only way to save face.

The question that begs to be answered is why they settled on purchasing the vaccine from their overlords in such a mass quantity,  Was it because it was readily available as few wanted it unlike the other vaccines? Did they also make other long term agreements, which are not transparent, with China?  What was the true impetus to load up on one vaccine and then put all your eggs in the production of another vaccine, one that now is being shunned by other countries, and has caused some medical issues, and I said some medical issues because most vaccines have folks that it does not work for and does cause issues.  Why the foot dragging, and do not say it is about money.  This country has plenty of money to fund the covid relief effort, and has also been given and has taken donations in the millions from other countries. 

 

They had been offered to be a part of Covax, but declined. They turned down an offer from India, which now in hindsight works better for India as they now need the vaccines.  They fast tracked Sinovac into the country but have been dragging their heels on approving others.  Was it out of a true concern of the vaccines suitability, or was it just poor and bad planning.  Whatever it was, they have left the country vulnerable, after seemingly having covid under semi control, prior to the new variants arriving, but with anything they do it seems to only be done half baked. 

 

I hate being critical, but life is precious, and yes other countries truly mucked this up, but it seems that Thailand did not learn and is now possibly following in the footsteps of others instead of staying near the top of the charts as a country who held cases down, be it from a lack of testing or because they really did have a handle on it, we may never know.  However, the time has come to have some steadfast leadership, stop the game playing and vaccinate your entire population in order to stay on top of this and stop playing the Nationalism game.  No more flip flops please.  You are close to making it into the Guinness book of world records for the longest Flip-Flop throw, and yes it is a category. 

 

LOS (land of smiles) has now in the past week become the true LOC (land of confusion), and if they continue then they will become LOL (land of the lost), and a further former tourism destination until they get their carp together.

 

Editorial piece complete.

[10baht]

Has anyone ever considered changing the name of ThaiVisa to Thai-Lament-Visa . Some of you from day to day need to get a real life.

[1duckyboy]

17 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

The government is also continuing to work on ways in which the private sector can procure vaccines. 

 

Well, there's the problem.

[Brierley]

6 minutes ago, Ian C HH said:

It’s normal for Our TV front liners to attack any piece of news within two seconds of publication but my take on this PUBLIC BROADCAST is that 

-. It’s in response to some very public criticism Thai policy on Farang vaccination has received - a good thing surely? 
- this policy ( prioritization of risk groups regardless of nationality) is absolutely logical and sound and in fact has been followed by many other governments around the world WITHOUT TV front liners derision and 

- IF enacted as articulated by the lovely lady spokesman quickly it will do exactly what those same front liners have been begging for since the pandemic began. 
 

okay, so it’s late, slow and reactive rather than proactive. Okay so you may have to pay 4000thb to jump a queue, but is there anyone out there who doesn’t value their lives more than 4000thb? 
 

id rather be positive ( boosting my immune system) than immediately attack this latest attempt to reassure the international community. After all we have the choice for f either a month of caustic cynicism or a month of optimism to find out if the Govt is genuine or not. 
 

if the former I’d love to see our front liners apologise, but that would never happen on TV forum, if the latter there’ll surely be the usual caustic ranting and raving. 
 

"IF enacted as articulated"! You're new here, aren't you. 

[Peterw42]

15 minutes ago, vandeventer said:

They are finding out that most Thai's don't want these cheap vaccines. And all vaccines have a use by date so selling them to us is the only way to save face.

Where are you getting 'Thais dont want the vaccine" from. Given that the system to sign up for the vaccine has failed 2-3 times due to being overloaded.

So Thai people dont want the locally manufactured AZ vaccine and would prefer to pay more for a different vaccine ????

[ThailandRyan]

8 minutes ago, Ian C HH said:

this policy ( prioritization of risk groups regardless of nationality) is absolutely logical and sound and in fact has been followed by many other governments around the world WITHOUT TV front liners derision

You might want to look in the Home Country forum for those critical posts.  We try very hard not to compare other countries when the OP is in regards to Thailand itself.  Comparing is not needed because we are here in Thailand and not elsewhere, and yet many still try to compare here with their in order to make a point, which is inappropriate and does nothing to assist in the discussion of the OP.

 

Logical and sound in your view but illogical in many others views and therefore agreeing to disagree is very common here.

[Ddbanksy]

17 hours ago, Sheryl said:

 

I think it is important to understand that when government talks about "foreigners" they are not talking about only or even primarily Western expats. Why should they?

 

The majority of foreigners in Thailand are migrant workers from neighboring countries. Over 2 million of them by most estimates.

 

From an epidemiological perspective, numbers matter which makes western expats of much less concern than these other groups.  It is migrant workers that the spokeswoman referred toi when she said some foreigners have already been vaccinated in Phase 1.

 

Very, very few migrant workers are over age 60 or have chronic diseases, which may be one reason why planning for Phase 2 did nto focus on foreigners.

"Very, very few migrant workers are over age 60 or have chronic diseases, which may be one reason why planning for Phase 2 did nto focus on foreigners."

 yeh,not many "60 year old migrant retirees" with with an underlying "Chronic desease", i assume 90% dead?