Thai health officials hint at reimposition of restrictions in Deep South

[webfact]

 

Lockdown restrictions will be reintroduced in Thailand’s four southern border provinces of Songkhla, Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, possibly in November or December, if the COVID-19 situation does not improve by then, according to Public Health Permanent Secretary Dr. Kiattibhoom Vongrachit.

 

Dr. Kiattibhoom was assigned by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to visit the four provinces, to help local officials with controlling the pandemic, after new infections steadily increased following the easing of lockdown restrictions.

 

He is, however, optimistic that local health officials will be able to curb the spread of the disease in two months, after an acceleration in mass vaccinations, and there will be no need to reintroduce the restrictions.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/thai-health-officials-hint-at-reimposition-of-restrictions-in-deep-south/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2021-10-08

 

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[smedly]

and Phuket ?

 

seems the application of rules are somewhat biased

[Stocky]

12 minutes ago, smedly said:

and Phuket ?

Phuket has had plenty of vaccines, the south has been largely neglected. The government vaccination webpage details percentage of those fully vaccinated (2 jabs) as follows:

• Phuket 83%
• Songkhla 30%
• Yala 29%
• Narathawat 24%
• Pattani 22%

https://dashboard-vaccine.moph.go.th/dashboard.html

 

So leaving Phuket out seems reasonable enough.

[Stocky]

Worth noting that Buriram, Anutin's power base, is 40% fully vaccinated - says it all really.

[MarcelV]

So no Yala Sandbox?????

[ukrules]

Mass exodus incoming....

[MarcelV]

31 minutes ago, ukrules said:

Mass exodus incoming....

Nah. Most people ain't goin nowhere bro. If you ain't got no money how you gon travel??

[ukrules]

17 minutes ago, MarcelV said:

Nah. Most people ain't goin nowhere bro. If you ain't got no money how you gon travel??

If there's jobs in other provinces which remain open then they will find a way. Travel is not expensive.

Unless they close the roads they're coming.

[MarcelV]

6 minutes ago, ukrules said:

If there's jobs in other provinces which remain open then they will find a way. Travel is not expensive.

Unless they close the roads they're coming.

They're gonna prevent people from traveling. No interprovincial travel anymore from and to the deep south. The gov't wants to seal the area off from the rest of Thailand. Like I said, no Yala or Songkhla sandbox for sure. If you wanna travel here from Bangkok or elsewhere, you're sh*** out of luck.

[ukrules]

19 minutes ago, MarcelV said:

They're gonna prevent people from traveling. No interprovincial travel anymore from and to the deep south. The gov't wants to seal the area off from the rest of Thailand. Like I said, no Yala or Songkhla sandbox for sure. If you wanna travel here from Bangkok or elsewhere, you're sh*** out of luck.

Whatever they do will fail. It might work a little bit.

 

They can't keep the frontier borders secure so there's no chance they can prevent people from moving around inside the country.

 

I guess they will make it a little harder to move around.

[Stocky]

42 minutes ago, ukrules said:

Whatever they do will fail. It might work a little bit.

Actually the imposition of travel restrictions in the south are usually fairly well observed. Geography helps, plus the fact there's already a heavy military presence. They're used to managing roadblocks down here and the people are used to seeing them.

 

But Hat Yai Sandbox Plus might be delayed a little from the New Year start, maybe Chinese New Year.

https://www.hatyaitoday.com/hatyai-sandbox/

 

.

[Moonlover]

4 hours ago, Stocky said:

Phuket has had plenty of vaccines, the south has been largely neglected. The government vaccination webpage details percentage of those fully vaccinated (2 jabs) as follows:

• Phuket 83%
• Songkhla 30%
• Yala 29%
• Narathawat 24%
• Pattani 22%

https://dashboard-vaccine.moph.go.th/dashboard.html

 

So leaving Phuket out seems reasonable enough.

Stop looking at numbers and go and read the full article. The area is not being neglected. The low vaccination rate is due local reluctance as a result of the spread of disinformation. A common theme which has largely been overcome in other parts of the country.

[Stocky]

25 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

Stop looking at numbers and go and read the full article. The area is not being neglected. The low vaccination rate is due local reluctance as a result of the spread of disinformation. A common theme which has largely been overcome in other parts of the country.

We were talking about Phuket not being included, the reason being vaccines have been diverted there, and Samui, for the sandbox experiment.

 

The south and other less fashionable provinces have clearly lost out in the allocation of vaccines as the government has not even tried to be equitable. Sure there has been some reluctance to vaccinate ( I did read the article), but that's not unique to the south or to Muslims.

 

As for not 'looking at numbers', how can you be fully informed if you don't review the data?

 

.

[MarcelV]

Meanwhile, Betong Airport is still sitting there unused and looking pretty. My inside contact has already predicted it won't open before Songkran 2022. At the slow rate the opening is being managed they might as well tear the airport down again. No Chinese are incoming for the foreseeable future anyway.

[bangon04]

5 hours ago, MarcelV said:

So no Yala Sandbox?????

Activity holidays are planned - paintballing with real bullets, ied dodging, and multi-purpose roadblock techniques.......

[MarcelV]

15 minutes ago, bangon04 said:

Activity holidays are planned - paintballing with real bullets, ied dodging, and multi-purpose roadblock techniques.......

Sounds good. Since I go to Yala regularly I will ask my Al-Qaeda friends there if they have something special prepared for the farang kufars brave enough to travel there. Should be a blast.

[nrasmussen]

2 hours ago, Moonlover said:

Stop looking at numbers and go and read the full article. The area is not being neglected. The low vaccination rate is due local reluctance as a result of the spread of disinformation. A common theme which has largely been overcome in other parts of the country.

I live in Songkhla province and I was supposed to have my 2nd injection today, but that has been postponed due to no vaccine available, so obviously priorities lie elsewhere.

[MarcelV]

1 minute ago, nrasmussen said:

I live in Songkhla province and I was supposed to have my 2nd injection today, but that has been postponed due to no vaccine available, so obviously priorities lie elsewhere.

I've had my second shot more than two months ago already. I'm not so sure if the four provinces really haven't got enough vaccines.

[Stocky]

Just now, MarcelV said:

I've had my second shot more than two months ago already. I'm not so sure if the four provinces really haven't got enough vaccines.

It's just totally disorganised, they keep switching the direction of the vaccine supply 'hose'. I didn't get my second AZ jab today either. Meanwhile my wife, whose been signed up since start July, has had Covid whilst waiting for an appointment. 

[nrasmussen]

14 minutes ago, MarcelV said:

I've had my second shot more than two months ago already. I'm not so sure if the four provinces really haven't got enough vaccines.

I don't know about the other three provinces, but I know for a fact that Songkhla does not currently have enough vaccines - otherwise I would have been fully vaccinated today.

[MarcelV]

36 minutes ago, nrasmussen said:

I don't know about the other three provinces, but I know for a fact that Songkhla does not currently have enough vaccines - otherwise I would have been fully vaccinated today.

Which vaccine would you like to get? In Narathiwat Province the Sinovac and AZ vaccines were widely available - I got the combination - and I believe my students are getting Pfizer shots this month. For adults there is no Pfizer available here yet.

[nrasmussen]

25 minutes ago, MarcelV said:

Which vaccine would you like to get? In Narathiwat Province the Sinovac and AZ vaccines were widely available - I got the combination - and I believe my students are getting Pfizer shots this month. For adults there is no Pfizer available here yet.

When I originally signed up (Bangkok Hospital Hat Yai) and they asked me what vaccine I was looking for, I told them that I didn't care about brand or type or if I had to pay or not, and that I just wanted the first one available.

 

So when I got my first injection that turned out to be AstraZeneca for free and that's also what they have told me that I will get the second time.

[Stargeezr]

What Thailand has southern hill billys.  If the insurgents would quit shooting people and making the

place dangerous, maybe more COVID vaccines would get distributed in that area of Thailand.

  Just my thought about the situation.

I do have a family member who came from Songkhla, but is happy to be living near Hua Hin.

Geezer

[MarcelV]

9 hours ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

What Thailand has southern hill billys.  If the insurgents would quit shooting people and making the

place dangerous, maybe more COVID vaccines would get distributed in that area of Thailand.

  Just my thought about the situation.

I do have a family member who came from Songkhla, but is happy to be living near Hua Hin.

Geezer

The insurgents see the lack of vaccines as an extra incentive for attacks.