Phuket Vice Governor responds to video of Thai man furious for having to pay B450 to enter Phuket

[webfact]

 

By The Phuket News

 

PHUKET: Phuket Vice Governor Piyapong Choowong has responded to a video posted online showing a Thai man furious over being asked to B450 for a rapid antigen test in order to enter Phuket on Monday (May 17).

 

The Thai man was furious for being asked to pay B450 to enter Phuket at a time when the provincial order in effect was to not provide rapid tests any longer. Screenshot: Phuket Info Centre

 

The man’s tirade, which has spread widely over Thai social media sites, came while officials were already continuing to provide tests for B450, despite the provincial order in effect at that time mandating that rapid tests no longer be available.

 

The man’s outburst was over being asked to pay B450 for the test, or else not being allowed to enter Phuket.

 

Full story: https://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-vice-governor-responds-to-video-of-thai-man-furious-for-having-to-pay-b450-to-enter-phuket-80076.php

 

 

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[RichardColeman]

5 minutes ago, webfact said:

a Thai man furious over being asked to B450 for a rapid antigen test in order to enter Phuket on Monday (May 17).

Been even more furious if he'd been positive and been whisked away by the covid mafia

[ezzra]

And rightly so, i too, would be unhappy to pay for something that is unmandated and unnecessary where it is not needed, there's enough of it around without adding more to the list...

[smedly]

So we asked the medical staff of a private company who were staffing the desks and conducting the tests to continue to conduct the test for arrivals at the lowest price, which was B450

 

who owns this company ?

[Bundooman]

1 hour ago, smedly said:

So we asked the medical staff of a private company who were staffing the desks and conducting the tests to continue to conduct the test for arrivals at the lowest price, which was B450

 

who owns this company ?

Well said. That is the only question that needs to be answered!

[Henryford]

But they expected farangs to pay 500!! Phuket doesn't deserve any tourists.

[tompelli]

The original cost for rapid tests for Thais was 300 baht. Someone is playing the shell game, with a little distraction of mixed messages the price jumps 50%. Maybe this test involves extracting urine?

[RJRS1301]

1 minute ago, tompelli said:

The original cost for rapid tests for Thais was 300 baht. Someone is playing the shell game, with a little distraction of mixed messages the price jumps 50%. Maybe this test involves extracting urine?

You taking the p##s???????

[Captain Monday]

 

15 minutes ago, tompelli said:

The original cost for rapid tests for Thais was 300 baht. Someone is playing the shell game, with a little distraction of mixed messages the price jumps 50%. Maybe this test involves extracting urine?

 

What is farang price?

[tompelli]

4 minutes ago, Captain Monday said:

 

 

What is farang price?

The original farang price was 500 baht. 

[chuang]

2 hours ago, Captain Monday said:

 

 

What is farang price?

Free ...threads from tvf as demanded by some..

[cclub75]

What is important here is not the story (very classic)... it's the fact that :

 

-the guy lost his nerves

-and that his rant was.... shared and viewed a lot.

 

.... The pressure is mounting...

 

The Covid hysteria starts to "bite" the people. Before, it's easy. It's on TV. It's looks virtual. But very quickly, all this drama, all those decisions to fight Covid has real effects on real life of real people.

 

And i'm not talking about the number of "deads" from Covid...

 

Many people are loosing everything...

 

Watchout the blowback...

 

In the West, we give cash. A lot. Here ? Not much.

 

We can't expect millions of people who lost everything... to just sit, watch TV, and agree to this situation, in obedience...

[KhunBENQ]

From the article:

Quote

There are no outsiders wanting to come to Phuket, but also people who have their house in Phuket. If they leave the island, they must pay B450 for returning home. What does this mean?

A legitimate question.

The whole idea of cutting Phuket from the rest of the country like a leprosy island is just ridiculous.

Edited May 22, 2021 by KhunBENQ

[stevenl]

7 hours ago, ezzra said:

And rightly so, i too, would be unhappy to pay for something that is unmandated and unnecessary where it is not needed, there's enough of it around without adding more to the list...

Rightly so? Why, he should not have been allowed in, end of story. He was extremely lucky to be allowed in with the test.

[Caldera]

Looks like their sandbox experiment will cost them the domestic market. If that's a good deal remains to be seen!

[PETERTHEEATER]

So what WAS the Governor's  response?

[riparian]

15 minutes ago, PETERTHEEATER said:

So what WAS the Governor's  response?

Vice Governor Piyapong took to social media again yesterday (May 20) to repeat his explanation.

“We would like to make our 500,000 people on the island to be safe. Arrivals who come by plane have to be swab tested before getting on board from the departing airport,” he said.

“From April 22 to May 15, we had rapid tests for arrivals at the airport and the checkpoint for free because the cost of the test was supported by the National Health Security Office [NHSO].

“After two weeks of using rapid test, the NHSO told us to use the test kits in the proactive screening in our provinces instead of testing new arrivals, as the number of people tested positive was very low,” he said.

Of note, after testing more than 73,000 arrivals, the rapid tests identified just 18 confirmed cases of infection.

“We planned to not conduct rapid testing at the airport and checkpoint anymore after May 15, but we had practical problems,” Vice Governor Piyapong continued.

“On May 16 and 17 we had a lot of arrivals wanting to come to Phuket, especially truck operators. They gathered and asked what to do. They told us they are ready to pay for the test,” he said.

“So we asked the medical staff of a private company who were staffing the desks and conducting the tests to continue to conduct the test for arrivals at the lowest price, which was B450.

“The company representative [of the company being paid to conduct the tests] told me they were not happy with the price and that they no longer wanted to conduct the tests at that price any longer,” V/Gov Piyapong explained.

“We want to stop the movement of people for a while, but we allow tested and vaccinated people to come because we think they have their own necessary reason,” he added.

 

 

“Phuket is an island, so we need to import food and other goods from the mainland. Drivers of the goods delivery trucks asked us to have self-paid testing at the checkpoint, otherwise they could not come in,” he explained.

“The video of that gentleman who got mad at the Phuket Government for self-paid testing came from May 17 when the private company conducted the tests for the last day.

“For now, we do not have rapid testing for arrivals at the checkpoint anymore,” V/Gov Piyapong said.

“The stopping of rapid testing did not come because of the video, we had discussed stopping the rapid tests before that. Additionally, the private company staff did not want to conduct the test anymore either.

“So, we published a new order for arrivals without documents to self-quarantine for 14-days,” he said.

“To be clear, from May 18, arrivals without any documents must face 14 days’ quarantine. This measure is planned to last for a short time to control the number of new cases on our island. We have had single-digit numbers of new cases for several days,” he added.

“About 500 drivers of goods delivery trucks have come to ask us for help. The Phuket Governor has a deal with them to provide the vaccine for drivers this Sunday,” he continued.

“This group of drivers understand that the vaccine must be injected in two doses, and they are willing to pay for the rapid testing during the gap between the first and second injection,” he said.

“We will find a company to conduct the rapid tests especially for the group of drivers,” he added.

“Most people on the island agree with our strict measure, but some people who need to get in and out of the province frequently and are affected by this measure, and already raised their voice to explain their problems,” he said.

[overt2016]

Phuket is an island? It is accessed by road?

[ThailandRyan]

13 minutes ago, overt2016 said:

Phuket is an island? It is accessed by road?

Accessed via the Sarasin Bridge

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Sarasin+Bridge+Phuket&docid=608016624446617748&mid=8CE057D2F3B78A5F3BA78CE057D2F3B78A5F3BA7&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarasin_Bridge

Edited May 22, 2021 by ThailandRyan

[BangkokReady]

9 hours ago, tompelli said:

The original cost for rapid tests for Thais was 300 baht. Someone is playing the shell game, with a little distraction of mixed messages the price jumps 50%. Maybe this test involves extracting urine?

 

The idea was to have the foreigners pay 500 to subsidise the tests for Thais.  Perhaps there are not enough foreigners coming so they have to make the Thais pay?

[tompelli]

16 hours ago, BangkokReady said:

 

The idea was to have the foreigners pay 500 to subsidise the tests for Thais.  Perhaps there are not enough foreigners coming so they have to make the Thais pay?

That is a possibility, who knows what is going on in their heads? To reach that conclusion however would mean that they believed/projected that more foreigners than Thais would be coming across the bridge? The company carrying out the tests aren't happy at charging 450 baht, so I assume that @300 baht they are slashing their wrists.