Phuket Sandbox Updates

[jackdd]

According to TAT only Thai FDA approved vaccines are accepted: https://www.tatnews.org/2021/06/initial-information-phuket-sandbox/

So if you have been vaccinated with Pfizer you don't qualify for the Phuket sandbox.

[ubonjoe]

36 minutes ago, jackdd said:

According to TAT only Thai FDA approved vaccines are accepted: https://www.tatnews.org/2021/06/initial-information-phuket-sandbox/

So if you have been vaccinated with Pfizer you don't qualify for the Phuket sandbox.

It is is the Thai FDA or the WHO. This from the article you posted a link to.

"All vaccinated international arrivals must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 with a vaccine registered with the MoPH or approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO)."

[ezzra]

Mark my words, all this "Phuket sandbox" ( more like cuckoo box ) will not take off as contrary to local beliefs that  tourists are  stupid and will agree and pay for the demands put on them for the "dubious pleasure" of holidaying in Thailand... 

[jackdd]

37 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

It is is the Thai FDA or the WHO. This from the article you posted a link to.

"All vaccinated international arrivals must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 with a vaccine registered with the MoPH or approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO)."

I missed this part, I was referring to the part further down, under "Vaccines":

Quote

International travellers who have received the following vaccines are able to enter Phuket:
– Thai FDA approved vaccines: AstraZeneca, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, Sinovac Biotech, and Sinopharm.

Arrivals must be vaccinated more than 14 days to 1 year before entering Phuket.

Proof of vaccination must be submitted when applying for a COE.

Pfizer is not on this list.

[skatewash]

9 minutes ago, jackdd said:

I missed this part, I was referring to the part further down, under "Vaccines":

Pfizer is not on this list.

Yes, the post as written is misleading, giving correct information in one area and incorrect or at least incomplete information in another.  It's caught out several people.

Basically, if you've been vaccinated it will be accepted.  I can't think of a single vaccine that I know of that isn't covered.  If it's explicitly accepted by Thailand then it's accepted.  If it's accepted by the WHO it's accepted.  If it's accepted by the government where you were vaccinated then it's accepted.

If it's been in the news over the last year it's almost certainly accepted.  Pfizer is an accepted WHO vaccine and therefore accepted by Thailand for purposes of entering under the Phuket Sandbox.

Tom's of Maine Natural Covid Vaccine, probably not accepted. ????

[DrJack54]

7 hours ago, asiam110 said:

Someone mentioned its been pushed out to 9th July a few hours ago? Cant access facebook at the moment to quote source as they've blocked my account until I do some upload photo nonsense

 

Think the July 9 was to do with above thread. It's July 1.

Edited June 10, 2021 by DrJack54

[ThaiVisaCentre]

7 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

 

Think the July 9 was to do with above thread. It's July 1.

I am not sure how accurate this is... As our platform alone has processed over 800 Sandbox booking requests since last week (even with the 14 day change), and looking at our numbers it is more than 20 Americans wishing to come before July 9th.

That being said many travelers are waiting until they can actually obtain a COE to enter the country before they decide to make any bookings.
 

Edited June 10, 2021 by ThaiVisaCentre

[HashBrownHarry]

6 hours ago, ThaiVisaCentre said:

I am not sure how accurate this is... As our platform alone has processed over 800 Sandbox booking requests since last week (even with the 14 day change), and looking at our numbers it is more than 20 Americans wishing to come before July 9th.

That being said many travelers are waiting until they can actually obtain a COE to enter the country before they decide to make any bookings.
 

I thought a booking was required to obtain CoE?

[skatewash]

22 minutes ago, HashBrownHarry said:

I thought a booking was required to obtain CoE?

I don't believe anyone has received a CoE yet to come to Phuket as part of the Sandbox proposal because it is just that, a proposal, which at this stage has received the support in principle of the CCSA but has not been approved and published in the Royal Gazette.  Best guess as to when that might happen is sometime next week.  Then the Thai Embassies and Consulates will have to be brought up to speed on the requirements and then they will start entertaining requests for CoE under the Phuket Sandbox model.

You can book a SHA Plus hotel now in Phuket if you wish but you will have to wait for the Phuket Sandbox to become law before you will find a Thai Embassy or Consulate that will be able to give you a CoE to enter Phuket under the Sandbox model.

[Bangkokazy]

People are mentally ill.
Sandbox means you only have one place to travel to.
We have money can choose where we want to travel to. Person travels to Phuket to swim in other people's sewers

 

In 1993, all my friends said it was time to leave

[ThaiVisaCentre]

1 hour ago, HashBrownHarry said:

I thought a booking was required to obtain CoE?

Yes that will be the process, but it is still not possible to use a Sandbox Hotel booking to obtain a COE yet.

Hopefully this starts to be allowed very soon.

Many hotels understand this, and are offering very flexible refund policies, and/or small deposits.

[ThaiVisaCentre]

On 6/9/2021 at 8:24 PM, candide said:

Great! Thank you! 

As more hotel are added, it would be nice to have a location filter, at least for the most popular areas, I.e. Patong, Kamala,  etc...

We have just pushed this feature live.

Hopefully it suits your needs.

Here is an example of filtering by the Patong, and Kamala districts in Phuket.

[candide]

10 hours ago, ThaiVisaCentre said:

We have just pushed this feature live.

Hopefully it suits your needs.

Here is an example of filtering by the Patong, and Kamala districts in Phuket.

Thanks! It works fine!

[Polaky]

This is really looking like a "Welcome to Alcatraz" scenario,

All bars, clubs, and most restaurants will be closed, not sure if you will be able to buy a beer in 711 or a restaurant, masks to be worn, will beaches be open? or pools?, pay out of your own pocket for 3 covid tests, surely they are not serious!, and don't call me Shirley ????

 

A quarantine hotel sounds more attractive, if they would bring it back to seven days.

[oldcpu]

17 hours ago, Polaky said:

not sure if you will be able to buy a beer in 711 or a restaurant,

In a 7/11 - yes you can buy alcohol in Phuket. I did so the other day.

 

In a restaurant - no you can't.

 

However if in Bangkok in an ASQ, you definitely can not procure alcohol, and I have even read of foreigners not being allowed to order yogurt to their ASQ room.

 

wrt quarantine and entry requirements - many countries have far more stringent requirements than Phuket's proposed 'sandbox'. Take a look at Australia and New Zealand ... and they are not alone in having more stringent entry requirements than what is being proposed for 'Phuket'.  I don't think there is a common global standard here - at least not yet.

Edited June 12, 2021 by oldcpu

[Phillip9]

On 6/9/2021 at 6:54 PM, skatewash said:

Basically, if you've been vaccinated it will be accepted.  I can't think of a single vaccine that I know of that isn't covered. 

 

The Russian sputnik is not WHO approved and it's not clear if it will be accepted yet.  It wasn't accepted a couple of months ago when they temporarily reduced quarantine for vaccinated people.

[ubonjoe]

According to a news article today it appears the sandbox is going to delayed until August 1st.

 

[skatewash]

40 minutes ago, Phillip9 said:

 

The Russian sputnik is not WHO approved and it's not clear if it will be accepted yet.  It wasn't accepted a couple of months ago when they temporarily reduced quarantine for vaccinated people.

Yes, the Sputnik V and India's Covaxin vaccines appear not to be approved yet although both are under consideration by the Thai FDA and WHO.

Edited June 12, 2021 by skatewash

[Tanoshi]

22 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

According to a news article today it appears the sandbox is going to delayed until August 1st.

More flip flopping, confusing, contradictory information that it will definitely, maybe possibly, probably not surely happen, unless it does.

 

 

 

 

 

[skatewash]

15 minutes ago, Tanoshi said:

More flip flopping, confusing, contradictory information that it will definitely, maybe possibly, probably not surely happen, unless it does.

 

 

 

 

 

I can't pretend that the Phuket Sandbox planning process is anything to be proud of, but the media has exacerbated the situation massively by how they have reported it.  The latest example, publishing an account that is completely wrong claiming a Thai minister said the Phuket Sandbox would not start on July 1, when if you read the source article from Siam Rath (in translation) you can see that he, in fact, said the absolute opposite.  I guess it would help if the media were more interested in accuracy than in gaining attention and riling up their readership.

Prime example of the shoddy journalism surrounding the Phuket Sandbox:
https://thethaiger.com/news/phuket/tourism-minister-reportedly-said-july-1-reopening-will-not-happen


What the minister actually said as reported by Siam Rath:

https://siamrath.co.th/n/252224

[Polaky]

On 6/12/2021 at 6:05 PM, ubonjoe said:

According to a news article today it appears the sandbox is going to delayed until August 1st.

 

This is fake news I believe, It will go ahead on July 1st, The report was translated incorrectly, what the statement actually said was Koh Samui wouldn't open until August 1st, so another misinterpretation of the letter, then again it is not official until the 19th?, so who knows what will happen. 

[ThaiVisaCentre]

3 hours ago, Polaky said:

This is fake news I believe, It will go ahead on July 1st, The report was translated incorrectly, what the statement actually said was Koh Samui wouldn't open until August 1st, so another misinterpretation of the letter, then again it is not official until the 19th?, so who knows what will happen. 

Very bad reporting all around.

We are pretty confident that it will proceed to be approved officially very soon. Either way we should know in the next week if it will be delayed, or not.

Technically it could be delayed without actually being delayed. We need to see COE's being issued soon with Sandbox Reservations, and if they are not no one will actually be able to arrange things to even arrive on July 1st.

????????

[ThaiVisaCentre]

We just received an update that the hotels will have to submit their guests to SHA-BA (Booking Authentication), and this results in a special QR code to use to get the COE.

It's hard to know how fast this will actually be rolled out. We expect the larger OTA's (like Agoda / Booking / Expedia) to be slower in adding this process.

It may be best to deal directly with the hotels until we can confirm the larger OTA's have this process in place. Or smaller OTA's / TA's which can follow this new step without major delays as there are only two weeks left until July 1st ????.

Any hotel listing on ASQ.in.th which has a weekly price listed will put you in direct contact with the hotel.
 

Edited June 13, 2021 by ThaiVisaCentre

[Dmitry2222]

On 6/11/2021 at 3:49 PM, Polaky said:

This is really looking like a "Welcome to Alcatraz" scenario,

All bars, clubs, and most restaurants will be closed, not sure if you will be able to buy a beer in 711 or a restaurant, masks to be worn, will beaches be open? or pools?, pay out of your own pocket for 3 covid tests, surely they are not serious!, and don't call me Shirley ????

 

A quarantine hotel sounds more attractive, if they would bring it back to seven days.

I agree with you. Also looks like no local tours to nearest islands.

[Dmitry2222]

On 6/12/2021 at 12:26 PM, Phillip9 said:

The Russian sputnik is not WHO approved and it's not clear if it will be accepted yet.  It wasn't accepted a couple of months ago when they temporarily reduced quarantine for vaccinated people.

 

They should be concerned about the presence of antigens, but not about which vaccine provided the required  antigens level.

[simon43]

Well, after all these requirements and procedures, is it really a holiday???  Sounds more like a punishment ????

[polpott]

21 minutes ago, simon43 said:

Well, after all these requirements and procedures, is it really a holiday???  Sounds more like a punishment ????

Compared to spending 15 nights locked in a room in an ASQ hotel, it sounds like a holiday to me.

[BritTim]

3 hours ago, Dmitry2222 said:

 

They should be concerned about the presence of antigens, but not about which vaccine provided the required  antigens level.

Sorry, but the level of immunity someone possesses to a virus cannot be judged just based on whether antigens showing exposure can be detected.

[Dmitry2222]

On 6/14/2021 at 2:13 PM, BritTim said:

Sorry, but the level of immunity someone possesses to a virus cannot be judged just based on whether antigens showing exposure can be detected.

At the same time France government don't think so.

 

Quote

upon boarding, each traveller aged 11 years or older must present a negative PCR or antigenic test taken less than 72 hours before the flight.

 

Looks like @BritTim knows more about immunity than some governments of developed countries.

[Andy1961]

So I am nearly there.  Got my O-A visa ???? issued (brilliant service from the Thai embassy in London) and flight/hotel booked for my 2 week 'quarantine' in Phuket.  I thought I would do my COE early to avoid any last minute panic but the SHA Plus hotels are not listed on the COE website, only ASQ.   Would I be right in thinking this is because the Sandbox scheme has not been entered in the Royal Gazette yet?   Not sure what that is but with 15 days to go shouldn't someone in authority be escalating this?   Or will the Government keep holding meetings and workshops until 23:59 on the 30 June?