50% of people on Koh Samui already vaccinated, island eyes July 1 reopening

[webfact]

File photo

 

The speedy rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine to people on Koh Samui means the island should be able to reopen to tourists from July 1, a leading tourism industry figure has said.

 

Currently some 57,000 people, approximately 50 percent of the island’s population, have been vaccinated against the virus.

 

A further 36,000 people need to be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity, Ratchaporn Phoonsawas, president of Koh Samui Tourism Promotion Association, has said.

 

If the vaccination targets are met, the island is hoping to open from July 1 under the ‘Samui Sealed Route’ model, which would allow tourists who have tested negative for COVID-19 to stay on the island for seven days. 

 

After seven days tourists will be required to take another COVID-19 test, which if negative, would allow tourists to travel to Koh Tao and Koh Phangan. 

 

Mr Ratchaporn said the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) will present the plans to the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), which are also expected to approve increased flights to Koh Samui.

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2021-06-08

 

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[ourmanflint]

No. A single dose of vaccine does not get you to herd immunity, 2 doses plus 3 weeks for antibodies to build up is the minimum

[Goldfingersamui]

Hopefully Bangkok Airways will se some sense and reduce flight costs ?

[spidermike007]

Let us hope this helps. At least a little. Samui is like a post apocalyptic zone, right now. Was recently there, in addition to another trip back in September. Thousands of restaurants, hotels, shops and other businesses have closed. Many permanently. 

 

So, my question is, what are tourists returning to? The island is fairly depressing right now, to witness the train wreck and to know how many people's life savings were wiped out in the process. 

 

So, what happens first? Do the tourists come back to the ghost in a shell? Or, do the locals borrow money to re-open, hoping those 5,000 tourists who show up, will bail them out? No assistance is forthcoming from this spectacularly stingy, apathetic, and visionless administration. 

 

Lastly, there have been no local cases there or on Phangan in well over a month. So keeping the bars and massage shops closed is pure sadism. And prohibiting restaurants from serving booze is not only pointless, it defies science, when there is nothing to transmit. All restrictions locally, should be lifted today. Stop punishing the people! 

 

These images are from Chaweng and Lamai, taken just a couple of weeks ago. 

 

The last two images are from September. Nothing has changed. If anything, the beach roads in Lamai and Chaweng look considerably more bleak. 

[Pottinger]

23 minutes ago, Goldfingersamui said:

Hopefully Bangkok Airways will se some sense and reduce flight costs ?

 

Yes, and hopefully pigs will fly one day.

[cnx101]

40 minutes ago, ourmanflint said:

No. A single dose of vaccine does not get you to herd immunity, 2 doses plus 3 weeks for antibodies to build up is the minimum

Exactly 

[internationalism]

but it's phuket, which suppose to open. And according to the latest TAT release it will be 14 days, before allowed to leave this island. 

samui will follow, if phuket sandbox works. It will be evaluated at least a month after, so in august.

So far samui is one of the provinces set for october.

As BKK now will be used as a transit airport for phuket, on special chartered planes, samui has a bigger chance, then before.

Otherwise very few airline will want to fly directly to samui.

 

[Deli]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

have been vaccinated against the virus.

 

Or got some doubtful Chinese syrup ?

[madmen]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

Let us hope this helps. At least a little. Samui is like a post apocalyptic zone, right now. Was recently there, in addition to another trip back in September. Thousands of restaurants, hotels, shops and other businesses have closed. Many permanently. 

 

So, my question is, what are tourists returning to? The island is fairly depressing right now, to witness the train wreck and to know how many people's life savings were wiped out in the process. 

 

So, what happens first? Do the tourists come back to the ghost in a shell? Or, do the locals borrow money to re-open, hoping those 5,000 tourists who show up, will bail them out? No assistance is forthcoming from this spectacularly stingy, apathetic, and visionless administration. 

 

Lastly, there have been no local cases there or on Phangan in well over a month. So keeping the bars and massage shops closed is pure sadism. And prohibiting restaurants from serving booze is not only pointless, it defies science, when there is nothing to transmit. All restrictions locally, should be lifted today. Stop punishing the people! 

 

These images are from Chaweng and Lamai, taken just a couple of weeks ago. 

 

The last two images are from September. Nothing has changed. If anything, the beach roads in Lamai and Chaweng look considerably more bleak. 

Spiderman give it a rest are you not tired of bashing you must be mentally exhausted! Your pics have been discredited many times. 

[spidermike007]

30 minutes ago, madmen said:

Spiderman give it a rest are you not tired of bashing you must be mentally exhausted! Your pics have been discredited many times. 

It is a tough path to discredit truth and reality. I took those images with my own eyes. Many of my friends who live on Samui are spending as much time on Phangan as possible, to avoid the terrible daily reality. 

 

Denial is hard. Sorry to speak truth. 

[madmen]

37 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

It is a tough path to discredit truth and reality. I took those images with my own eyes. Many of my friends who live on Samui are spending as much time on Phangan as possible, to avoid the terrible daily reality. 

 

Denial is hard. Sorry to speak truth. 

Pics were taken a year ago during a snap lockdown. You must have posted them a dozen times already. Completely discredited  by TV members several times so give it a rest mate only a totall moron would think that it would look like that on gates open day. 

 

Edited June 8, 2021 by madmen

[bojo]

6pm couple days ago Chaweng High street...............

[spidermike007]

36 minutes ago, madmen said:

Pics were taken a year ago during a snap lockdown. You must have posted them a dozen times already. Completely discredited  by TV members several times so give it a rest mate only a totall moron would think that it would look like that on gates open day. 

 

 

Lies. Lies and more lies. Who is now the one lacking credibility? I was just there.

 

The top three pics were taken two weeks ago. Top two on BEACH Road in Lamai. Third on Beach Road, near Soi Solo in Chaweng. 

 

Have you been on the beach road in Chaweng or Lamai letely? 

 

Please. 

[Neilly]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

approximately 50 percent of the island’s population, have been vaccinated against the virus

 

Are we talking Thai or 'Foreigners'...

 

 

 

[khunPer]

I thought this thread was about vaccination, but as often when it's about Samui, it end up in bashing the island, and especially the beach road in Chaweng, not to forget Lamai. They are not that different from other tourist area, which have been hit hard by the Covud-lockdown, you can see similar images from Paton on Phuket, and Walking Street in Pattaya.

 

I could have shown pictures from a few days ago of open shops and life on the beach road – unfortunately I snapped only some of the closed parts – and if I chose others I can show a place as deserted and dead as a Dodo like the ones Spiderman repeatedly are showing.

 

I drove through the beach road in Lamai a while ago to show a friend what is was like from dash cam stills, and depending of which frames I chose, I could show an almost totally closed Lamai Beach...

 

-or I could show a Lamai Beach that is quite open for business ...

 

Those that do not like Samui, don't need to visit the island; hopefully Bandit Air will keep their prices high enough to sort the audience...????

5 hours ago, ourmanflint said:

No. A single dose of vaccine does not get you to herd immunity, 2 doses plus 3 weeks for antibodies to build up is the minimum

About vaccination. In first round some 25,000 people got vaccinated twice, with three weeks separation.

 

In second round another 26,667 doses (i.e. persons) were given from 26th to 31st May, and they are planned to have their second jab three weeks later; i.e. during this month.

 

There are about 60,000 registered as living on Samui, and presumed 90,000 including non registered foreigners, non registered Thais, and migrants workers.

 

Unfortunately the AZ vaccinations planned for older people yesterday and today had been cancelled, together with the Sinovac jabs for foreigners under 60 years on the 1st June, due to people not living on Samui had registered for vaccination. Now all foreigners need to register through the immigration office's app, so reported address is checked, which unfortunately might delay the vaccination program a bit.

 

But 50 percent heard immunity obtained during this month is correct; i.e. more than 50,000 fully vaccinated out of 90,000...????

[khunPer]

21 minutes ago, Neilly said:

6 hours ago, webfact said:

approximately 50 percent of the island’s population, have been vaccinated against the virus

 

Are we talking Thai or 'Foreigners'...

50 percent of total, which is more than 50,000 people out of 60,000 registered inhabitants and presumed additional 30,000 unregistered, including foreigners without a house book registration; i.e. 50,000 of 90,000...????

[gearbox]

20 minutes ago, khunPer said:

50 percent of total, which is more than 50,000 people out of 60,000 registered inhabitants and presumed additional 30,000 unregistered, including foreigners without a house book registration; i.e. 50,000 of 90,000...????

I doubt the authorities know at the moment how many people live in Samui.  Many Thais and Myanmar workers left the island. So in the end the percentage immunized may end up being more than 50%.

 

Otherwise the airlines seems to gear for the Phuket opening,  looks like the ASQ hotels in Bangkok would lose quite a bit of business. I have a ticket to Europe with Etihad late next month, and received yesterday a message that my flight is getting rerouted via Phuket,  so I need to zigzag Samui->Bangkok-Phuket to leave Thailand.

Edited June 8, 2021 by gearbox

[khunPer]

11 minutes ago, gearbox said:

I doubt the authorities know at the moment how many people live in Samui.  Many Thais and Myanmar workers left the island. So in the end the percentage immunized may end up being more than 50%.

 

Otherwise the airlines seems to gear for the Phuket opening,  looks like the ASQ hotels in Bangkok would lose quite a bit of business. I have a ticket to Europe with Etihad late next month, and received yesterday a message that my flight is getting rerouted via Phuket,  so I need to zigzag Samui->Bangkok-Phuket to leave Thailand.

50 percent extra people on top of the registered population, i.e. 30,000 of 60,000, sounds like a fair number to me, i.e. a total of around 90.000; mind you that lots of both Thais and migrant workers have gone home after the lockdown, and the number of foreigners is down to the hard core expats and some Covid-refugees.

 

Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore flights will be easy to restart, they restarted before and foreigners were coming in when the quarantine a short while was down to a week. You can transit in Hong Kong, Kuala Lompur, and Singapore for Samui. Samui's "sandbox" model is little different from Phuket's, and hasn't been much up in the media.

 

I read in an article shared in Thaivisa news section today about Pattaya that Thailand shall not expect Chinese tourists right away, as they at present will be subject to three weeks quarantine when returning from Thailand, the article concluded that the tourists in question for the reopening will be Americans, Europeans, and Russians...????

 

From the article...

...Chinese tourists are unlikely to return in high volumes, as the central government is taking no chances and is maintaining a strict three-week quarantine requirement for returning travellers.

 

This means Pattaya – which in 2019 welcomed 2.7 million Chinese visitors, many on package tours – must rely on Europeans, Americans and Russians who have been vaccinated and are desperate to travel after prolonged periods at home.

 

[Tropicalevo]

1 hour ago, gearbox said:

my flight is getting rerouted via Phuket,  so I need to zigzag Samui->Bangkok-Phuket to leave Thailand.

Ouch.

That is a bit or a re-route.

Drive to Phuket might be quicker or is it on the same ticket?

[gearbox]

27 minutes ago, Tropicalevo said:

Ouch.

That is a bit or a re-route.

Drive to Phuket might be quicker or is it on the same ticket?

 

Same ticket. The tickets for August departures are not rerouted yet through Phuket, so I'll wait a bit and will probably change the departure date a few days later to early August. Also I'm registered with the app for vaccination in Samui, I hope I can get Sinovac, as I won't be here for the second AZ jab, it is after 16 weeks. Not a big issue though as there are plenty of vaccines everywhere in Europe.

[Stargeezr]

Hey Gear box, just think of all the Tropical views of Thailand you will get on your flight out of the country.

  Just hope it is not like the voyage of the Minnow. Remember Gilligans Island?

Geezer

Edited June 9, 2021 by Stargrazer9889
error

[Fex Bluse]

I see their strategy here. Strong likelihood they will simply lie and start pushing propaganda that certain areas of Thailand are highly or fully vaccinated and that it somehow should be reassuring -- which is absurd as populations mix in the country.

 

Once again, Thais being devious instead of doing the right thing and focusing on getting the job done well.

[spidermike007]

13 hours ago, khunPer said:

I thought this thread was about vaccination, but as often when it's about Samui, it end up in bashing the island, and especially the beach road in Chaweng, not to forget Lamai. They are not that different from other tourist area, which have been hit hard by the Covud-lockdown, you can see similar images from Paton on Phuket, and Walking Street in Pattaya.

 

I could have shown pictures from a few days ago of open shops and life on the beach road – unfortunately I snapped only some of the closed parts – and if I chose others I can show a place as deserted and dead as a Dodo like the ones Spiderman repeatedly are showing.

 

I drove through the beach road in Lamai a while ago to show a friend what is was like from dash cam stills, and depending of which frames I chose, I could show an almost totally closed Lamai Beach...

 

-or I could show a Lamai Beach that is quite open for business ...

 

Those that do not like Samui, don't need to visit the island; hopefully Bandit Air will keep their prices high enough to sort the audience...????

About vaccination. In first round some 25,000 people got vaccinated twice, with three weeks separation.

 

In second round another 26,667 doses (i.e. persons) were given from 26th to 31st May, and they are planned to have their second jab three weeks later; i.e. during this month.

 

There are about 60,000 registered as living on Samui, and presumed 90,000 including non registered foreigners, non registered Thais, and migrants workers.

 

Unfortunately the AZ vaccinations planned for older people yesterday and today had been cancelled, together with the Sinovac jabs for foreigners under 60 years on the 1st June, due to people not living on Samui had registered for vaccination. Now all foreigners need to register through the immigration office's app, so reported address is checked, which unfortunately might delay the vaccination program a bit.

 

But 50 percent heard immunity obtained during this month is correct; i.e. more than 50,000 fully vaccinated out of 90,000...????

 

As anyone on Samui, and especially in Lamai knows, you have cherry picked a couple of areas that are showing some signs of life. Yes, there are five or six dining places open on the beach road. But, as you know 95% of the restaurants, 100% of the massage shops, 90% of the gift shops, and countless pharmacies, hotels, and other businesses are gone. Maybe they will come back. Maybe they won't.

 

Some shops are opening in anticipation of the silly and timid sandbox plan. Samui and Phangan are ready to reopen fully, as there have been no Covid cases there in well over a month, and any current restrictions are draconian, punitive and sadistic. 

 

I lived on Samui for a decade. I loved it. Still enjoy my visits. But, as my friends who still live there, and myself have witnessed, it has been slammed by the shutdown. It is what it is. No point trying to dress up the truth. Thongsala in Phangan by comparison is like Times Square on New Years eve, right now. 

[Neilly]

13 hours ago, khunPer said:

the article concluded that the tourists in question for the reopening will be Americans, Europeans, and Russians...

 

They'd better hope that the Russian vaccine gets WHO approval in the next couple of months then...

 

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-expects-who-approve-sputnik-v-vaccine-within-2-months-rdif-2021-06-04/

[gearbox]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

 

As anyone on Samui, and especially in Lamai knows, you have cherry picked a couple of areas that are showing some signs of life. Yes, there are five or six dining places open on the beach road. But, as you know 95% of the restaurants, 100% of the massage shops, 90% of the gift shops, and countless pharmacies, hotels, and other businesses are gone. Maybe they will come back. Maybe they won't.

 

Some shops are opening in anticipation of the silly and timid sandbox plan. Samui and Phangan are ready to reopen fully, as there have been no Covid cases there in well over a month, and any current restrictions are draconian, punitive and sadistic. 

 

I lived on Samui for a decade. I loved it. Still enjoy my visits. But, as my friends who still live there, and myself have witnessed, it has been slammed by the shutdown. It is what it is. No point trying to dress up the truth. Thongsala in Phangan by comparison is like Times Square on New Years eve, right now. 

They should have opened Samui first, not Phuket. July is high season in Samui, low season in Phuket. Go figure...maybe it is because they can't work a safe passage yet for the transit via Bangkok.

 

In the end probably won't matter as the "opening" will be mainly used by the long term residents, which won't care much about the weather.

I'm coming back at the end of October, when theoretically it would be "no quarantine",  but this is unlikely, judging by the track record so far.

[gearbox]

3 hours ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

Hey Gear box, just think of all the Tropical views of Thailand you will get on your flight out of the country.

  Just hope it is not like the voyage of the Minnow. Remember Gilligans Island?

Geezer

 

I'm actually grateful that the middle eastern airlines still fly...can tolerate these inconveniences. I flew back to Thailand mid January economy class with Qatar, you could choose 3-4 seats to sleep anywhere in economy, it was so empty.  It is better for them to get all the Bangkok and Phuket traffic to the Middle East in one plane.

[spidermike007]

40 minutes ago, gearbox said:

They should have opened Samui first, not Phuket. July is high season in Samui, low season in Phuket. Go figure...maybe it is because they can't work a safe passage yet for the transit via Bangkok.

 

In the end probably won't matter as the "opening" will be mainly used by the long term residents, which won't care much about the weather.

I'm coming back at the end of October, when theoretically it would be "no quarantine",  but this is unlikely, judging by the track record so far.

There is a good chance Samui may get 3,000 tourists in July. Maybe. 

[khunPer]

5 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

 

As anyone on Samui, and especially in Lamai knows, you have cherry picked a couple of areas that are showing some signs of life. Yes, there are five or six dining places open on the beach road. But, as you know 95% of the restaurants, 100% of the massage shops, 90% of the gift shops, and countless pharmacies, hotels, and other businesses are gone. Maybe they will come back. Maybe they won't.

 

Some shops are opening in anticipation of the silly and timid sandbox plan. Samui and Phangan are ready to reopen fully, as there have been no Covid cases there in well over a month, and any current restrictions are draconian, punitive and sadistic. 

 

I lived on Samui for a decade. I loved it. Still enjoy my visits. But, as my friends who still live there, and myself have witnessed, it has been slammed by the shutdown. It is what it is. No point trying to dress up the truth. Thongsala in Phangan by comparison is like Times Square on New Years eve, right now. 

As you might have learned by now, I live on Samui, and permanently for 16 years, been coming here regularly for 20 years.

 

If your percentage figurs relates to Lamai's beach road, then they are wrong, apart from massage, which at the moment are closed due to a temporary restriction. Chaweng's beach road has been harder hit.

 

My point is, that you can pick photos, and angles of photos and crop them, to show what you prefers them to show. I picked only three as examples of each photo-style from my dash cam, I could have shown more of a lively beach road in Lamai, much more if I crop, or more of a road as dead as a Dodo, much more if I zoom in.

 

Samui, by the way, had another Covid-19 case Sunday, so you seem to need to catch up on your stats about Covid-cases – i.e. "as there have been no Covid cases there in well over a month" – before that last case it was about two week with no new cases. So far the total number of Covid-19 cases on Samui is 84 (by 8th June)...

Edited June 9, 2021 by khunPer

[huberthammer]

On 6/9/2021 at 9:07 AM, spidermike007 said:

 

As anyone on Samui, and especially in Lamai knows, you have cherry picked a couple of areas that are showing some signs of life. Yes, there are five or six dining places open on the beach road. But, as you know 95% of the restaurants, 100% of the massage shops, 90% of the gift shops, and countless pharmacies, hotels, and other businesses are gone. Maybe they will come back. Maybe they won't.

 

Some shops are opening in anticipation of the silly and timid sandbox plan. Samui and Phangan are ready to reopen fully, as there have been no Covid cases there in well over a month, and any current restrictions are draconian, punitive and sadistic. 

 

I lived on Samui for a decade. I loved it. Still enjoy my visits. But, as my friends who still live there, and myself have witnessed, it has been slammed by the shutdown. It is what it is. No point trying to dress up the truth. Thongsala in Phangan by comparison is like Times Square on New Years eve, right now. 

Your half truths and little lies keep to amaze me. You seem to have visited Samui "recently" every few weeks.  You seem to know everything better than people who actually live here and most importantly you seem to have a huge chip on your shoulder when it comes to Samui. Get over it and move on (and leave us alone on here).

 

As a side note, mods should intervene when he keeps posting the same photos every few weeks especially when they are not in any way relevant to this topic.