Opinion: Thailand should seriously consider just letting vaccinated foreign visitors in with much lesser rules

[The Pattaya News]

The Pattaya News
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The following is an opinion. The thoughts and statements in this article are the author’s own and may not reflect those of the entire Pattaya News Company Limited.   Nobody can deny currently that things are tough here in Thailand. It’s almost a perfect storm-daily protests, 29 areas/provinces under partial lockdown measures that have shuttered […]

Opinion: Thailand should seriously consider just letting vaccinated foreign visitors in with much lesser rules
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[Arnie85]

Sure. After 75% of the country is vaxxed. 

[Greg_B]

36 minutes ago, Arnie85 said:

Sure. After 75% of the country is vaxxed. 

What year do you expect to happen...?

[Arnie85]

First quarter 2022. 28% have had one and 8% have had both jabs.  Slow start but they’re getting there. 

Edited August 21, 2021 by Arnie85

[Arnie85]

https://covidvax.live/en/location/tha

[Inigo]

I found it interesting that Phuket today reported 101 new cases of Covid. Remember that this place has the highest rate of vaccination in the country, has decided to close its border with the rest of Thailand, and taken many other measures as part of the sandbox programme to keep its population safe from Covid, so it should have far fewer cases than the rest of the virus-ridden Kingdom. But that's not the case as it turns out. Phuket has a population of around 400,000, compared with 70 million in Thailand as a whole. If you pro-rate the 101 cases then, on a national level, the rate of new cases in Phuket is around 17,600, not that much less than the actual number reported for the country as a whole today of 20,500. Does this mean that Phuket's precautions have been a waste of time, and there's no hope for tourism without quarantine? Or does it just mean that Thailand will have to learn to live with tens of thousands of new cases every day after it reopens, just as Britain is doing?

[eXplosief]

5 minutes ago, Inigo said:

I found it interesting that Phuket today reported 101 new cases of Covid. Remember that this place has the highest rate of vaccination in the country, has decided to close its border with the rest of Thailand, and taken many other measures as part of the sandbox programme to keep its population safe from Covid, so it should have far fewer cases than the rest of the virus-ridden Kingdom. But that's not the case as it turns out. Phuket has a population of around 400,000, compared with 70 million in Thailand as a whole. If you pro-rate the 101 cases then, on a national level, the rate of new cases in Phuket is around 17,600, not that much less than the actual number reported for the country as a whole today of 20,500. Does this mean that Phuket's precautions have been a waste of time, and there's no hope for tourism without quarantine? Or does it just mean that Thailand will have to learn to live with tens of thousands of new cases every day after it reopens, just as Britain is doing?

And how many of those in ICU or on ventilator?

Edit: you are also trying to compare an average for the whole country, that includes provinces with very low numbers, to a single place. Why not compare it to for example Chonburi?

Edited August 21, 2021 by eXplosief

[Petesie]

Expanding the Sandbox programme to other provinces would be an enabler most of us would welcome.

If they've been fully vaxxed and test negative that's a very minute & acceptable risk to the population of Thailand. 

The dramatic rise in the infection rate is mainly internal though as pointed out the recovery numbers are also rising. Vaccinations are slowly being rolled out as they become available & as pointed out, the country really needs to get back on it's feet. 

[keltix]

pattaya sandbox would be interesting